


The Sentimentality of Machinery

by Royswordsman (RoySwordsman)



Category: Captain America (Comics), Iron Man (Comic), Marvel, Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, M/M, mixed timeline au, obsessive robots, ptsd warnings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-30
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2018-01-27 15:30:36
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 28,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1715606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoySwordsman/pseuds/Royswordsman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark, director of SHIELD finds out that after all this time, SHIELD have been hiding a secret project from him and keeping Captain America under wraps. When he finds out that his hero is real, relationships are formed, but Tony's old friend gets extremely jealous of how close him and the Captain are getting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> AU where Captain America wasn't discovered until after Director Stark is in place, along with mentions of other villains and the Sentient Armour. 
> 
> This is for the Cap-IM rbb 2014!  
> [](https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3823/12689497404_98540572e1_b.jpg)  
> Art by the wonderful [Le Peru](http://le-peruggine.tumblr.com/)

 

Inhale deeply.

Exhale slowly.

_Who’s talking? Are they voices?_

_Is someone shouting?_

_Who is that?_

_What is that beeping?_

_Where am I?_

_Help, help, can anyone hear me?_

_Hello? Anybody?_

_Can you hear me?_

_My name is Steve Rogers, US Army, Captain._

_Hello?_

_Someone help._

 

****

Bullets were being sprayed left and right, the heavy sound of the Gatling guns being reeled out and having their handles cranked as bullets were being fed to them, then the clank of the shells to the floor was heard like a song – load, fire, clank, a repeating rhythm.  Hydra agents were scouring the base, but Captain America was far from the front lines at that point, not while the Commandos covered down below.  

 

From where Steve was, all he could hear was the pang of bullets, but that was mainly because he was being shot at while trying to clutch onto a drone plane and the explosive device that was attacked to it to disarm it. Bucky was crouched down next to him – shooting at oncoming agents to protect Steve, showering bullets upon oncoming enemies.

 

“Come on Cap! I’m gonna run out of ammo if I ain’t careful!” The other half of the dynamic duo hollered.

 

“Remember what I said Buck, usin’ up ammo like that s’gonna get you into trouble! Be wise with your shots!”

 

“Where’s the fun in that, Cap?” A cheeky grin followed, but Steve couldn’t really see it, not when he was so focused on trying to get the bomb defused.

 

_Launch sequence activated_

 

Steve’s bright blue orbs widened in panic and he began to tap faster. Bomb defusing wasn’t his forte, that was more Gabe and Dino’s expertise, and it became even more difficult to focus when the floor was beginning to rumble, and the countdown activated.

 

Zemo was stood proud and tall in the observation deck, laughing as he leaned forward to press on the comm.

 

“Farewell Captain America, send my regards to the cosmonauts.” He cackled maniacally.

 

The haunting cackle was the last thing he heard before his hearing became fuzzy; a mass of panic began to overwhelm him, none like any other. He pulled back a little from the control pad to grab his head, attempting to stop the vivid ringing. It was the very same ringing that he’d head back when the air raid happened back in London, and to this day it haunted him.  He could remember the shattering of glass, the screams of the people outside and then moments later after that explosion he saw them, their corpses laying still, the life drained out of them. Those haunting memories were attacking him even there, in the midst of battle and crippling him into a state where his entire body fell numb just from the thought.

 

“Cap..? CAP!” Bucky was trying to yell over the loud sound below them and from the barrel of his gun. This wasn’t the first time Steve had suffered from shellshock, in fact it was becoming increasingly worse, but the situation that they were in was the worst time on earth for him to be suffering from it. “Snap out of it!” He yelled, kicking the last Hydra agent away before placing his hand either side of his Captain and shaking his shoulders.

 

Steve snapped out of his daze, still seeing speckles of white light before his attention turned to the plane, latching onto it alongside Bucky who followed Steve’s movements.

 

“I’d ask if you were okay, Cap, but we ain’t got time for the formalities!” Bucky was panicking.

 

“I’m fine! We need to get to that—“ The drone plane was launching, smoke was brimming from the thrusters and it began to shake much more violently, the roar of the propulsion systems being a deafening sound, particularly if you were strapped to the it.

 

“Hold on tight!” Steve said, managing to get one of his hands safe and secure on a small nook that was in some of the panel work, his young sidekick did the same with the both of them shutting their eyes as the plane began to take to the sky. It was then that they knew that they didn’t have long.

 

“We need to disarm it Cap, or the guys down below are gonna die!”

 

“I know Buck, we’ll try to get to it!” He said, reaching his hand up and starting to climb the moving jet, which was even harder now that his hand continued to have that tremble to it, the ringing in his ears persisting even though he’d managed to snap out of the daze, it still left that residue.

Bucky knew that he was the most agile of the two, and used Steve to help climb closer, grabbing onto the panel of the bomb and flinging it open, watching the door fly off and plummet to the ground, causing him to make a loud swallow. Of course there was hesitance in his motion, and he knew he had to be careful with it, but the sooner he could get it done, the sooner that they could go back home. Steve approached with the same mind-set, carefully trying to amble his way up and fight the air resistance that was pushing him back to reach Bucky’s side.  Before he could, there was a loud beeping and he saw his sidekick’s fingers begin to move quicker. “Cap, Cap it’s going to blow!”

 

“Bucky! Just come to me, take my hand, we gotta let this go!” He pleaded, reaching his hand out to the boy, feeling his legs sliding down the metal panels, typical Hydra and their poorly built planes.

 

Bucky had to yank his hand out of the control panel, reaching for Steve’s hand but the soldier was falling further and further out of reach. “Steve!” He yelled.

 

Steve couldn’t hold on any longer, and the bomb was flashing red – and that’s when it dawned on him. “Bucky! Let go! It might be booby trapped! You can’t deactivate the bomb without me! Drop off!” He yelled.

 

Bucky stared at the panel that he was trying to distance himself from, watching it start to flare with smoke as Steve slid off the plane, expecting Bucky to do the same. “You’re right Cap! I see the fuse! It’s gonna blow!”

 

“Bucky, drop!” He yelled as loud as he could, watching the boy fly further and further away from him.

 

“Cap—Steve..!!!” He yelled.

 

Steve had managed to let go, but before the boy could let go the plane burst into flames, exploding with a loud bang – bright embers flying in every direction.

 

“No… No…! NO! BUCKY!!!” Steve screamed as he hit the water, the impact shattering pain throughout his body, disbelief and utter guilt running through his mind. He plunges deeper and deeper into the blue, the salty filter stinging his eyes as they remain wide open, seeing nothing but that explosion, hearing the scream of his best friend resound over and over. He’d never felt so much pain in his entire life, and not because he’d crashed into the water and that he was sinking lower and lower into the perpetual abyss, it was because he had seen his friend scream out, reach his hand to him, but he just couldn’t touch his fingertips, he couldn’t move that inch closer to grab his arm. He couldn’t save him.

 

He let him die.

 

_He could’ve saved him._

_He could’ve saved him…_

 

***  


“Give me the stats on Captain Rogers.”

 

“He’s still alive; we’ve managed to recover him.”

 

Fury paced the room filled with mechanics and machines, chrome being the colour of resonance in the enclosed space that all the lab coats were busy scurrying about in. His single eye darting from screen to screen in some attempt to gauge the situation; they had just found and identified the man that was found encased in Arctic ice. It was the one and only Captain America, but not everything was in order, well, not as much as Fury wanted it to be.

It was clear by the frantic typing and the way that the white-coats gathered around the screen that something was clearly the matter. Their conference was quite abruptly interrupted by an ever so curious Nick Fury Jr.

 

“What’s that?”  He asked, gesturing to the monitors. There was far too much scientific jargon for even him to comprehend.

 

“It’s his brain processing, sir, our systems are dictating a small anomaly.”

 

“Anomaly? What kind of anomaly are we dealing with here?”

 

“Here sir…” One of the lab assistants handed over a holo-file, a small tablet with a cyan interactive projection.

 

“It appears that he’s suffering from a large mental instability… Post-Traumatic Stress…”

 

“Shellshock, I suppose he’d call it.” Fury mused.

 

“It appears to be quite severe. Symptoms that it can cause range from flashbacks to the past to ringing in the ears and even blurry vision.”

 

Fury rolled his eye, “I _know_ what PTSD is, doctor. So how are we going to solve this, my guesses are that him waking up in the future isn’t going to help.”

 

“A simulator, Sir. Stark Technology, actually. It’ll allow you to simulate his world in his brain, allow him to live things as they should be if he were back in his time… Tony Stark was the first to invent this tech for training purposes but we’ve since been attempting to develop it, much further than for those purposes alone.”

 

“It still pisses me off that Stark refuses to work with SHIELD, well, sooner or later… Once he gets a grip on his own company, that’s pretty much sinking right now. I heard Obadiah Stane is the one that’s taking charge now…” Fury chuckled with vindication, through and through. “…It’s only a matter of time.”

 

The wondering thought was short lived, especially when he looked at the simulator and the schematics that appeared. “Perfect. Try that out on him, see how he responds. It’s better to keep him under.”

 

“Why’s that sir?” A curious young intern enquired, peeking over her crescent, thick framed glasses, her clipboard held to her chest. “He’s a hero, wouldn’t it be best for him to go and join Iron Man and the others out in battle? I mean we could always give him therapy to help him with the issues that he has--”

 

Fury could silence her with just a glare, his hands resting behind his back with a clip of his heels echoing on the metallic floor beneath him.

 

“The world just isn’t ready for him, and he’s not ready for the world.”

 


	2. Chapter 2

“Set the computers to observation.”

 

Observation mode activated.

 

It had been months since Captain Rogers had been found and transported to a small base located just off the coast of England where SHIELD was keeping him under strict observation. He was still unconscious, lying on that cold steel bed, locked in a tiny room of the hidden base. The capacity was completely sealed, not even daylight managed to break into it; there wasn’t a single window. Everything was artificially lit in this lime green lighting which made it have much more of a horror atmosphere, the occasional flicker from the power supply able to send even the workers into shudders of paranoia. But that was the way that Fury liked it. He liked his workers to be on edge, because he knew it was the adrenaline that kept them going. Not that they had much to do asides from monitor.

 

The first few weeks of the process were the most complicated and involved installing a new type of machinery that Stark Industries had only just brought out, but SHIELD wasn’t happy with the regulation machinery. Of course, they had to adapt it and modify it for their purposes which involved an array of mechanics tinkering with the inner workings of it all to create a simulator that could create the surroundings that they wanted. This wasn’t just for training or recreation of something small, it was creating an entire world dated back to the 1940’s, all in the head of Steve Rogers.

 

The white screen fuzzed a little, the noise of static as though it were coming from an extremely outdated television. Fury lurched over the large semi-circle of a control panel, the workers still walking back and forth like busy drones, checking the man that lay still on the steel table and monitoring the computers around him whilst their director’s attention was fully focused on the screen the other side of the room.

 

He watched it flicker until an image finally cleared, eye narrowing on the vision that was before him of Steve walking about the city. This was all what was going on in the mind of the super soldier, and was being manufactured by the simulator.

 

Steve seemed happy, everything seemed normal asides from the fact that the date was 1945 in the simulator, everything was peaceful and jolly. The US troops had returned from their service upon the announcement of Japan announcing their surrender and cease-fire and the signing of the formal paperwork of the peace treaty was to be signed in the upcoming months. That’s what Steve Rogers was reading as he was walking down the streets, paper in hand, fedora lowered a bit, looking mighty smug in his dark brown trench coat, and yet he managed to fit in perfectly with this world. 

The last thing he could remember was falling into the ocean, and then waking up in the sick bay back in the US camp where all the other soldiers were being treated. He didn’t see the Commandos, but he saw a couple of old faces and some new ones that he didn’t quite remember serving with. But the US Army was huge, he couldn’t remember every single face, hell, he probably didn’t even serve with the most of them.

 

That didn’t matter now.

 

He was safe, wrapped in the warm cotton sheets with the spring breeze rattling the blinds.

 

He was given the all clear and then sent home, back to his place which wasn’t too far from the base, even though he had a distinct recollection that he was hours away from base. He didn’t quite understand, but there was a lapse of time between him getting from the base to home, returning to his place in Brooklyn, the small apartment that he was raised in with everything looking just the way he had left it, even with specs of dust coating the shelves that he had left vacant for so long.

 

Steve was really back home, back in Brooklyn, and it was like nothing had ever changed. It was strange being out of the battlefield, but a relief that HYDRA had apparently fallen with the Nazi regime, and that everything was slowly starting to self-regulate. The economy was getting better and the best part of it all was that the kids were free to run around the streets again, happy and carefree.

 

So there he was, walking down the street with his paper in his hand when a car zoomed by, horning loudly at a passer-by that stepped into the road. The angry pedestrian smacked the bonnet of the car; the calamity was starting to cause a row. But the loud bang on the cast-iron car made him jump, the hollow drumming ringing through his ears as he stood, staring at the near-collision with wide eyes.

 

Fury drew himself closer to the screen, watching the solider look like a deer caught in the headlights.

 

“Why is he standing still?”

 

“This has been happening since we found him sir, what we were afraid of. The Post Traumatic Stress causes—“

 

“I thought by easing him into the real world it would reduce this.”

 

“But sir, he has triggers, even in his own time. Yes the easing process will be much better once we figure out a way to get him up to date by speeding up development and time for him in that mind simulator, but for now we’re focusing on trying to cure the lingering effects from the War. Once we manage to help him with those, then we’ll manage to start the time speed. But recently he’s been having severe panic attacks.” The lab assistant gestured to the screen, and on it was Steve in that street, clutching his head, gritting his teeth, down on his knees as ringing sounded through his head. The flashes of Bucky drifting away and falling into the ocean, leaving them behind flew rapidly through his thoughts.

 

“Create the kid, Bucky, in his dreams. That’ll help him; it should reduce the panic attacks, especially if he’s got a security blanket there.”

 

“Sir, what are we going to do when we try and age him and…”

 

“We’ll give the kid a peaceful death, one that’ll let Steve recover properly. From what my father told me, Barnes was K.I.A on a rocket, a premature death, after invading a HYDRA base. We can at least give Rogers some solace if there’s a better way.” Even the fiercest of soldiers had sympathy for their brethren, and Fury was no different.

 

The lab workers typed frantically, and then a young lad came scuttling toward Steve, dressed in high shorts, a flat cap and white shirt, looking rather smart.

 

“Steve, pal, what’s wrong?!” He asked.

 

“B-Bucky..?” Steve looked up, peering over the rim of his hat. “But I… I thought you were…”

 

“Thought I was what, Cap?” The boy placed his hand on Steve’s jacket shoulder, gently trying to lift him to his feet. “You’re day dreamin’ ain’t ya, come on now. I know you’re all arty but there ain’t no need to be carryin’ that creative brain of yours to reality.” Bucky chuckled.

 

It was like he’d never left.

 

Steve didn’t know how to feel at that point, he thought Bucky was dead; in fact he was sure of it. He’d been living this last month trying to grieve over him, and now he was there, right in the flesh. He could feel that light grip, that faint whiff of bubble-gum, the brown haired boy looked like he’d never been to war – the beloved mascot, looking so pristine and well. That was all Steve wanted.

 

“You snapped out of it now, bud?” He asked, pivoting on his heel to look at the car that was in the small collision start up and drive away. “She’s a beut huh. I hear they’re makin’ them outa steel and iron since we got an aluminium shortage… Next ya know they’ll be makin’ cars out of cans of coke.”

 

Steve let out a quiet chuckle that resonated with more confusion than anything else, trying to get himself together, looking around at the passers-by, and going about their day as though nothing happened.

 

The reason that they were so calm and collected, and the reason that Bucky was so convincing and so willing to shift subject, was that they were manufactured – this was all a manufactured world, stemming from Steve’s memories and changed, thrown into code and re-coded by the scientists in order to simulate what they want, when they want, how they want. Steve’s mind was theirs to control, unbeknownst to the Super Soldier.

 

Bucky’s arrival was the most exciting thing that’d happened to him in a month. Everything else was extremely mundane, Steve was trying to look for a job after doing his service, but day after day he found nothing. Instead he would sit in his room and draw, maybe go to the bar, but everything seemed the same, every morning seemed the same. Mornings consisted of a small run around the block, and morning paper and coffee, then a trip to the gym and then lunch at a diner. The same routine, the same passers-by, the same smiles and nods, tilts of hats and subtle waves and giggles from schoolgirls passing.

 

 Everything was on loop, a systematic loop that would change when the scientists added more variables to the equation. This was all to keep him safe, all to keep him in his bubble not only because he wasn’t ready for the world of _the future_ , but the world wasn’t ready for him either. That was at least what Fury was telling himself as justification for keeping Steve locked within the chasms of his memories.  It let him sleep better at night, as if he got a single wink – not when he had the constant threats of the world to deal with and secure, while his top notch weapon rest at bay, recharging until the day that it would be ready to save the world once again. If he ever saw fit to do so. If ever. He wasn’t being selfish in detaining him, he was protecting him.

 

Oh ye of little faith.

 

With Bucky by his side Steve seemed much better, happier even. So he resumed his routine, this time changing it ever so slightly to accommodate spending time with his friend. A feeling of gratitude befell him, feeling more attached to Bucky than he should have. The kid seemed very curious of Steve’s demeanour, but didn’t question it, which Steve found a little strange but he was just glad his friend was there and by his side again. The dazzling duo was complete again, and had survived the war and was back home, and he really couldn’t ask for more than that.

 

Fury was content with what he was seeing, as sad as it was to keep a national icon like a caged eagle cooped up in this place, he knew it was needed. It would heal him, he convinced himself. With that he backed off from the screens. “Make sure he gets home, safe and everything is kept as it is. Minimal changes and we can start the adaption process once he shows mentality stability and the symptoms of PTSD decline.” He would salvage his mentality if it was the last thing he would do.

 

“Yes sir.”

 

Nick took one last glance over his shoulder at the screens, the much happier man and his best friend, going about their day as if nothing had ever changed. He was living the world that he could have only dreamed of, and it was truly beautiful. A world at peace.

 

And with that, he left, leaving Captain America in his dream world, giving him sanctuary, solace and peace.


	3. Chapter 3

Tony Stark – Inventor extraordinaire, socialite supreme but most of all - business tycoon, one that the world had learned much more about in recent years, particularly more so about the fact that the ‘comeback kid’ seemed to be a name that stuck to him for a reason. After his company was under threat and had actually been fully acquired by Obadiah Stane during the hostile takeover of Stark Industries, Tony had found a way to push himself out of the sticky situation and regain full control of his company through independent companies that he had acquired and built up from scratch. It was a long and trivial pursuit, but Tony emerged triumphant and stronger than ever.

 

He had become well aware that his technology was being bought in bulk by a mysterious security agency, which he was later hired by under the impression was a rather small-fry company. Turns out after he was ‘hired’ to freelance for them, much more was revealed. They were a superhero organisation, and had formed a team of heroes of which he was invited to join. Tony wasn’t particularly much of a team player when it came to working in his suit of Iron, his superhero alias, Iron Man, and particularly disliked when they had found out that Tony Stark and Iron Man were one in the same after he had spent so long trying to fool them. Making robotic suits and improving his AI to become more lifelike, but it was no match for SHIELD. Instantly upon making the discovery, Tony was taken on board (with much protest from the billionaire, but that was overcome once he was given full security access, including the president’s private number – needless to say, Tony and the president soon became well acquainted.) and had his skills utilized, but the billionaire was never one to remain in a static position. He began to climb the corporate ladder riddled with bureaucracy and then the time came, his time, the era of Stark.

 

Tony Stark the ultimate business tycoon had managed to extend his reach, surpassing the ministry of defence and take over SHIELD after years of working under Fury’s orders. The acquisition resulted in him overthrowing Director Fury and taking over the world’s most secure home of defence.  Fury then resumed his work, begrudgingly so, as Commander but was keen to keep operation rebirth under wraps. That was until Fury was caught in a catastrophe of an accident and was sent to the medical bay back at HQ to be tended to, that was when things started to slip and secrets started to spill.

“Security access is limited to Fury, huh? So I take it he’s hiding something…” As he had proven during acquisition of SHIELD, nothing was too big for Tony to handle, even though being Director was proving particularly difficult, especially when he was trying to solidify and fine-line the details of an act he had in mind, but that could wait till a later date. Now he was focused on finding out what exactly it was Fury was trying to keep under wraps, and it was the ideal time, knowing that the man wasn’t there to stop him somehow. Even though Tony was the director, Fury always found a way to maintain his power, but that was soon to be undone.

He moved from keyboard to keyboard, performing access overrides as though he were playing a simple video game. His tasks were made quicker thanks to extremis flowing through his veins, allowing him to communicate with technology as though he were telling a butler what to do. Tony’s blue irises lightened to a cyan and a faint lit ring appeared as he accessed the systems quickly. It was as though he was rooting through mounds of paperwork, slinging it in multiple directions, trying to dig through the encryptions and security codes. The work was tedious to say the least, and it was heavily locked and covered. If Nick Fury knew how to do one thing well, it was how to cover his tracks. Traversing the vast magnitude of data and files that were hidden, he managed to dig out secret after secret. HYDRA’s work with SHIELD was one of the deepest secrets that they were, and that was exposed and ridden of by the heroes that Fury had hired. So that wasn’t the deepest of secrets, but he’d managed to find more – plans for weaponry using his own tech, plans for suits, teams and more.  After compiling the mass of secrets in his new and improved database he sat down at the desk, resting back in the huge leather chair, fingers tapping on the dark mahogany desk as he stared at the monitor. Admittedly he did have that extreme sense of fulfilment overcoming him, particularly because he’d managed to pull a Sherlock Holmes on all of these files.

Enlightened, he decided to resume the mundane work that he had to attend to. The fun was over for now, and he was fully aware of every last detail of every operation that was now going on in SHIELD, as well as the entirety of its past. Tony Stark was now confident that SHIELD was now under his full and complete power, which made him much more secure, and it was indeed important for a man that was directing a security company to be indeed secure.

Being a director wasn’t all perks that was for sure, and became particularly relevant as soon as he had to go through the expenditure and give a sign off on certain things to the accountants and so on – masses of bureaucracy went into running a huge industry like that, and finance was the most meticulous process.  As he was sifting through the papers he’d noticed something – an expense that was being diverted to a subsidiary off the coast of England. Tony’s hand ran along his well-trimmed beard, pinching his chin a little as he ran through the spending which was for equipment, utilities, payrolls – all to a place off the coast of England that he had never once been made aware of. In fairness, he hadn’t ever fine lined the finances this thoroughly, but it still concerned him. He got to his feet and started going through the old files that were still in paper form, sifting through the large folders and trying to find what on earth was in that location.

“Operation Rebirth…” The large beige folder indicated, worn and used, frayed and dog-eared, and was clearly something that hadn’t been read in years. Tony took the folder in his arms to the desk, skimming through the frail papers trying not to damage them even more than they already had been. It looked like a relic, but the project judging by the dates, was relatively recent. No, that was until he spotted the date of initiation – dated back to World War II. His sapphire orbs widened with perplexity, the bridge of his brow creasing with perturbation. This was certainly something, and something that he doubted was even real in the first place. Sure he’d heard his father talk about this stuff, especially in regards to the Super Soldier Serum and the experiment that spawned a hero called Captain America – but he was killed in action long ago, that was the verdict. Howard had been searching for years and years to no avail.

Tony had grown up surrounded by the myths and stories of Captain America, hell he even collected the comics and had a whole room of Cap memorabilia. He was his hero, his company. When his father was busy he would sit down and read the comics and imagine he was right there witnessing it all, or even fall to sleep hugging a little action figure. Captain America had done so much for him without even being a real figure, and now this paper was saying that he was real – and here he thought all this time that it was just a figment of his father’s insanity.

The more his eyes scanned the more his reality shattered, with fragments piecing together from his childhood. According to these files Captain America’s body was found and kept. The actual body was being preserved off the coast of England, which was something that Tony was desperate to see. Even if it was just a body, he wanted to see his childhood hero in front of his eyes; he wanted to gaze upon the man that had saved so many.

Without a second thought, he walked out of the office, long strides past each individual office filled with studious workers, most of them with their heads in the game. The moment they caught Tony striding by they quickly turned their heads from perhaps staring into space to going back to work.

Upon reflection he realised that he couldn’t take one of the jets, which would be too obvious. So once he reached the top of the building he allowed the smart metals from a case he kept nearby to hover around his body before latching over his skin. Red and gold now covered him in the form of one of his latest suits, his RT node glowing a bright blue, helmet clasping on before the faceplate locked itself. The metal shimmered in the sunlight as he stood on the roof, the bright blue panels with intel flashing up on his screen, looking from side to side to ensure that the suit was in working condition, and JARVIS confirmed that by reeling off statistics. “Perfect. Let’s go to the coast of England then.” He said, the boosters lighting up and beginning to flare before the propulsion system took effect, sending him up into the air in a vertical stance, taking flight with blue streams of light following him. “I should probably get some tea for Pepper, or some crumpets. You know if I can’t buy the Queen out of the crown jewels. I tried once, actually, they drive a hard bargain. National treasures, pff.”  Tony bantered with his AI.

The flight went by relatively quickly, especially after Tony had made his first sonic boom, travelling at extreme speeds often made cross-sea journeys extremely quick. By the time he had reached the coast, it was little after dinner in the UK.

“Damn, I wanted to try a British roast, oh well, there’s always tomorrow.” He said, looking at the clock on his monitor before touching down. He didn’t land on the coast, it was an island that was off the coast, near Wales, but it wasn’t that hard to spot. Judging by the jurisdiction that SHIELD had over it, it was probably a man-made island, and those were a cinch to find considering the analytical capabilities that his suit had, it just took a single glance to find it.

Of course at first glance it looked like just a regular island, but Tony’s scans revealed much more than that. He slowed to a halt as his boots skimmed the surface of a hillside that was covered in lush greenery, just looking as though it were a normal hill enclosed in the countryside which seemed rather typical for the area. The thrusters dulled to a spark and then finally his feet touched the grass with a light shift. Instantly he turned his head from side to side, taking a couple of more steps forward and then kneeling as his faceplate slid to the top of his helmet before the entire thing slipped back into a compact that fit neatly around his collar. The fresh country breeze skimmed through his dark hair, pushing it back in a gentle wave. He sighed, unable to prevent himself from inhaling how fresh it all was which was considerably different from spending so much time in the city, not that he would trade that lifestyle for anything else in the world. His hands felt around the terrain, through the blades of emerald grass before his gauntlet finally latched onto something. “There’s no escape from Detective Stark.” He muttered to himself, pressing the hidden button and then punching in a security code whilst using his internal decoder. When they called him Inspector Gadget, they weren’t really kidding, his suit could do anything he wanted if he so chose to.

The ground began to rumble and Tony’s repulsors lit instinctively, watching as the once neat and calm grass subsided to reveal a gargantuan metal door which opened as though it were a fissure in the ground, opening to swallow him, but before he could fall he was caught by one of the rising platforms that formed into a downward set of steps. An inch to the left and he probably would’ve fallen down.  Tony could hear the buzz of bar-lights flickering on; the type that he would see in the interrogation rooms of SHIELD to create an eerie vibe that paralleled horror movies.

He made his decent, taking each step in its own stride, slowly, cautiously, head snapping toward any sound that was made including that of his own footstep.  The lights flickered and lit just enough for him to see where the next step was, before the bar of light next to it would shine, alternating, clearly motion sensitive activation.

“Stay alert, JARVIS.” He mumbled to the suit.

He stopped for a second to hear footsteps below and the occasional conversation. So he knew he was definitely not alone.  A small pause, and then he took a few steps closer. Once he had reached the final stair, he decided to scope the area that was much larger than he had originally anticipated.  It was a narrow steel walled hallway that he was walking through, fortified steel, which clearly meant that there was something extremely dangerous down here. He followed the lime green light that led him to a door, more specifically, a gap in the door. Like a curious child in a hospital he stared through the circular medical window of the door, observing SHIELD lab assistants scurry around with their files in hand. None of them were wearing biohazard suits, so whatever it was, wasn’t radioactive. They weren’t genetically engineering the zombie apocalypse which admittedly was a thought that flashed through his mind as brief as it may have been, so to make his steps quieter and himself more stealthy, he rid himself of his suit – the pieces shifting into an accurately shaped briefcase which he held in his hand, revealing his directors uniform. Carefully he ensured the white straps on his shoulder, carefully positioned over the black main bodysuit, were in place before slipping through the doors.  He tried to keep his head low but then it dawned on him, this was now all his. This building belonged to him, this was part of the acquisition since it involved SHIELD, it may have been a subsidiary, but it was still being funded by the main body therefore belonged to him. He was about to grab one of the stray lab coats that were hung up by the door but decided against it upon his realisation, and instead, walked through the doors. The secret to operation rebirth was through the doors to his left.

Even when he was flying earlier he tried to suppress how angry he was that this was real, that this could’ve been real. Internally he knew that the serum had really existed, after all, Extremis was developed upon the foundation of the initial serum, but that didn’t prevent resentment from simmering knowing that there could’ve been other heroes to help him had they been given the serum. Extremis was different, it was something he would never share for a number of different reasons, particularly down to the risks that came with it, but the super soldier serum in its purest form perhaps could’ve taken things down a different road entirely.

Immediately he pulled out his director’s badge, mentally preparing himself and then swiping his card through the reader only to see it flash up a red light instead. His eyes narrowed and he swiped it again to see the same beep. Two lab assistants walked toward the door with their expressions promptly overcome by consternation when they who was standing before them.

“There’s something wrong with my pass, be darlings, will you…”

They scuttled back a little nervously in tandem.  “You don’t have jurisdiction here, Director Stark.” One meek voice of the two spoke.

“What are you talking about, you realise I’m the director, that means I’m in charge.” He hated using his title to get his way, always a firm believer in earning his rank, but when the going gets tough the tough needed to get going.

“Sorry sir, Fury’s orders.”

“Fury isn’t in charge anymore. Did you not get the memo?”

“Still sir, we’re sorry we can’t.”

The tough _really_ needed to get going.

His irises lit to cyan, that ring appearing as he stared at the command keys trying to find some way to break the encryptions using Extremis, which was harder than he had thought. It wasn’t exactly technopathy, but it was damn close. The two lab assistants attempted to position themselves to block the door, but they knew they weren’t as big as people that Tony had faced before, they were no Juggernaut or King Pin. The bolts made a loud clicking sound, unlocking and Tony’s eyes faded to their regular colour, placing the briefcase that he held down for the moment and gave them a light push back to get in. They put up as much resistance as they could but everyone had seen what Iron Man was capable of, they dare not push against him but they did try their best to hold him back.

“Mr Stark! Please!”

“Let me go through.”

“Director!”

He pushed his way through, spotting Maria of all people standing there, eyes darting up to her.

“What is the meaning of this?!”

“You’re not supposed to be in here, sir, the area is off limits.” That ‘sir’ came out with a hint of venom. Maria knew she could do a better job as director, she knew it with every fibre of her being. She wasn’t jealous, no, she was seething that Tony Stark of all people would gain that position over her, not when her loyalty to Fury was clearly without boundaries, so much so that she was there looking over a super soldier that was supposed to remain hidden from the public eye. This was one of Fury’s secrets, and Maria held it close to hear heart that Fury would entrust her with such responsibilities. Tony had never been in her good books, but they had a very weak bond of mutual respect for one another, emphasis on the weak.

It could’ve been said that Tony feared her, just a little, but that generated more of an unspoken respect. She was strong, loyal, powerful, stunning and definitely not to be messed with.

The only way to assert his authority over someone as powerful was to stand his ground.

“Like hell I’m not supposed to! What’s going on here?”

And then there he was.


	4. Chapter 4

The fierce expression dropped right off his face.

It couldn’t be, the man himself, the original super soldier from those relics that he would call comic books and action figures, it couldn’t be the very man he had worshipped growing up as a child just lying there on that long bench, skin as pale and a fragile looking as a porcelain doll. He was still, beautifully so and would look utterly perfect if not for the wires that were threaded around him, attached to him, making him look as though he were part of the machinery.

No, the thought of Captain America being part of a machine broke his heart. His hero couldn’t be. It wasn’t what he stood for. 

He tried not to linger.

Be professional.

“…Sir, we’re testing the subject to establish if he’s fit as a SHIELD operative… We’re under Fury’s orders…”

_The subject…_

“You mean you’re screwing with his mind.” That much was clear. Wires around the brain, screens, neuro-schematics flashing up on the charts. “You missed the news; Fury’s not running this joint anymore.” He took a moment, putting on that face that he had dropped, fierce, sturdy, his iron mask. “You’re dismissed.”

“Sir…” Maria attempted to say, but never before had she heard his voice so strong and filled with conviction.

“Out, both of you. Report to my office on the double.” He was sure they understood that meant get out of this place and back to the regular HQ in D.C.

With a discontent huff, Maria headed out. Normally she wouldn’t, she wouldn’t dare budge, but she could see by that look in his eyes, the pause and dip in his tone, that this meant something entirely different to him, which was perhaps the reason that Fury was so keen to hide it from him. Rather than return to one of the jets, she stayed by the outside of the door, just in case. This after all, was a mission set by Fury, and she wouldn’t let go of it that easily.

He couldn’t believe that man he had idolised since he was a child, having read his comics as a little boy and even having his action figures was real, yet alone in front of him. Apparently Howard’s drunken ramblings weren’t ramblings at all. Every single detail about him was flawless, his chiselled jaw, golden hair. It was a shame Tony couldn’t see his eyes, but he imagined them to be as blue as the ones in the comic books. 

The room was clear, empty, just with that beeping from the machinery echoing, and the faint buzzing from the screens. Tony’s vision sauntered toward them to see the images of what he could only deem to be Steve’s memories. The olden setting, the peaceful atmosphere, it just seemed like a regular day in New York in the 1950’s – not the 40’s. He could get lost in it, it was like watching a TV show where everything was happy go lucky, and was half expecting canned laugher to drum out from the speakers. Snapping himself out of it, he looked around for the medical files, picking one up and skimming through the papers.

“Fury was trying to protect him… From what…” He pondered. Each paper showed progress, development and recovery from a severe case of post-traumatic stress. That’s why the era on the screen was further progressed than the 1940’s setting that Tony had expected. “He was trying to ease you into the world… Says here that you weren’t ready, that your mental stresses were so severe that he feared you snapping when you woke up. Bullshit. You’re Captain America… You’re not just some dummy, you’re a guy that fought the Nazi’s, you’re the same guy that withstood blow after blow, the sentinel of liberty.” Fury could’ve sped up the progress, even Tony knew that, but he chose not to, perhaps because he wanted Steve to be their secret weapon, their last resort. “Captain Rogers…” Tony managed to pull his eyes away from the screen and to the man on the bench, pulling up a chair and reaching for the dog tags around the porcelain dolls neck, reading them. “It’s really you… It’s you…” He could feel his heart thudding, a sense of butterflies making his stomach turn. He needed to pull him out of this dream, this lie. With a small pivot he yanked out the wires that connected Steve to the system. He heard the door swing open and a couple of lab assistants fumbled through the swinging metal.

His moment was interrupted.

Tony swung around. “I told you all to get out of here!”

“The assimilation process isn’t complete, Mr Stark, you can’t just pull him out into the real world like that!” One of the lab assistant’s yelled.

“The longer you keep him there, the longer it’ll take for him to get a footing in the real world. There’s no better way for him to adjust then to throw him in the deep end, but he sure as hell won’t be alone in it. Fury thought for some absurd reason that we weren’t ready for him, that he wouldn’t survive in this world. Oh ye of little faith. This is Captain America, not just any regular guy!”

“He’s fragile!”

“He’s a god damn soldier.” Tony snapped,  “Fury was blinded by his overt sense of entitlement, his logic was absurd and overprotective for a man who was used to running out into the field and getting hurt time after time.” His head turned to look down at Steve, trying to lull his gaze from that childlike awe to concern. “Now get out, and if I need you, I’ll call you.”

“Sir, Mr Stark, with all due respect, he won’t survive in this world! We’ve put him under rigorous testing, every scenario results in him having a mental breakdown and his inability to adapt-“

“You don’t know him.” Tony barked.

“Neither do you, sir.”

The director glared with a sharp intensity.  He didn’t fully understand why that annoyed him so much; after all, she was right. He didn’t know anything about the real Captain America; he didn’t even know he was still alive after all these years.  Tony would be sure to research it all, dig up all he can from those hidden files especially since he was in the facility. 


	5. Chapter 5

_I can hear voices._

_Beeping. Machines._

_Am I trapped in a HYDRA base?_

_Was I kidnapped by the Skull?_

The last thing he could remember was walking the streets, heading to Coney Island with Bucky when he was sucked into an overwhelming darkness, and now it was still dark, just at that moment he could hear voices scrambling, some distant mumbles about being fragile, and then a mention of Captain America.

 

_That’s me… I’m Captain America, can you hear me?_

_I can’t move. I can’t see a thing._

It was infuriating. He couldn’t move, and he wasn’t being heard no matter how loudly he was shouting, but Steve Rogers was a man of persistence, he wasn’t about to give up. He tried and tried, no unsure whether it was making any difference or not.

 

Tony was reading through the files that he had ordered everyone bring to him, skimming each word and taking everything in. This was the man from the comic books, even judging by the brain patterns that were documented, the settings and reactions. Even in his fake world in his mind that he’d been thrown into, he was still a hero, helping old ladies cross the street, paying for someone when they didn’t have enough for their morning coffees. The man had a heart of gold which was something that Tony had admired, but in some senses deemed as nativity. He understood why Fury thought that he wasn’t fit to live in this world and it was even by Tony’s regard, Steve’s ideals were outdated. The people of today wouldn’t react kindly to a lot of his traits nor would they want to be helped. Women were no longer considered damsels in distress- they were powerhouses. If someone dare call Carol a damsel she would probably punch them so hard that they would fly through the stratosphere. But that didn’t mean that Tony didn’t have faith that Steve could adapt. He thought every word on the paper about his PTSD was a horrible excuse to keep him under lock and key, keep him as a relic and restrict him from growing. Tony scowled the more he read, but his line of sight was suddenly distracted by a small movement in the distance.

 

The director lowered the folders he held extremely slowly, unsure if he was just becoming delusional from all the stress he was under, but he could’ve sworn that he noticed Steve’s hand move. Was it possible that he was waking up after the wires were pulled, that soon?

 

Another flinch.

 

Tony craned his entire body closer, leaning and watching the left hand, still attached to some of the wiring, move. His vision darted up to Steve’s face, seeing his eyes scrunch up, brow attempting to pinch, a weak movement from the corner of his perfectly shaped lips.

 

“He’s waking up…” Tony whispered. “He’s waking up! Doctors, get here right now, he’s waking up!” He had never felt so excited in his entire life. The last time he had been this elated was when he had built his ballistic missile.

 

The lab assistants and doctors huddled around Steve, observing every twitch until his lids lifted with shock, blinking a few times, attempting to gain some sort of focus.

 

Immediately he focused on the dark blue eyes that stared at him, the man that stood at the edge of the bed in a strange black uniform with white straps. The blur cleared into a distinct image after time. “Where am I?! Who are you?”

 

“My name is Tony Stark, Director of SHIELD – and I’ll tell you everything.”

 

***

It was one of the most interesting speeches Tony ever had to make, alongside the lab assistants to help him deliver it. The hardest part of it all was when he had to tell Steve that his friends had died, and Bucky had died during that explosion and was considered KIA. Surreal was the word, especially since it was as though he were talking to a living doll. That speech of course came after the soldier had shot up in bed, tugging off every wire, ripping them off as though they contained some sort disease.  He scrambled, tried to escape and it took about 8 people to try and hold him back, but Tony refused to treat him like an animal. He negotiated with him, said he could leave as he wanted as soon as they talk. The Captain agreed, but blamed his compliance internally on his disorientation, using this talk to bide his time until his head cleared and he could at least gauge where he was and how he had gotten there.

 

Shock, disbelief and that sick feeling pooled in Steve’s stomach after every word he was told. With every word Tony spoke he had to provide evidence, because if the Captain was anything like him, facts and proof were extremely important for validation.

 

The blond had his eyes settled down on the ground imploringly as though it would give him answers, and Tony noticed the slump in his posture, the line of lips. If anything at that moment locked in this labyrinth of science, Steve Rogers was lost. Although he was a futurist, he was by no means heartless, a little detached but never robotic – he had made a huge effort ever since he had gone through the Extremis process to detach himself from machines in terms of his personality. He had been told by ex-lovers and friends that he was becoming more machine than man, which is why he made a much more conscious effort when the lab assistants returned with what was left of Steve’s possessions, to comfort him.

 

There were enough possessions to fill a small box no bigger than a dinner plate, and that was it. A few pictures that were torn and tattered, clothes that Steve had been wearing, a couple of coins and a journal that was water stained and damaged so much that the pages were nothing but a flimsy mess. Tony felt pity for him, to lose everything like that, to be left with so little. He’d felt it before, when his company had been taken over by Obadiah, when he had lost it all and hit rock bottom, he had been left with little to nothing. And now to see someone that he had a strong hero worship for (but attempted to dull it down to respect) looking so broken brought an unfathomable dull strike to his chest. He was never one to leave someone else in a state either. “Captain Rogers.”

 

Steve stared up from his possessions with a hollow glare, trying at least fathom all he had been told.

 

“I know this is a lot to take in. And I want to help you, I feel since I’ve taken over from old man Fury, that it’s my duty to.” _That and I read your comics back to front when I was a kid_.

 

“There’s no obligation Director Stark.”

 

“It’s not an obligation!” Tony quickly snapped. “It’s something I want to do, and I get to learn more about you in the process, exchanging info, isn’t that a fair trade? If you don’t like what I have to tell you then SHIELD won’t force you to work with us, if you do, then we can help you.”

 

Steve couldn’t see the downside unless he was being thrown into a trap, but right now he had no choice but to listen, knowing for well if he ran off he wouldn’t exactly know where to go.

 

Tony stared with anticipation, trying not to remain fixated on the man. “You think about it, and I’ll be just out there when you’re ready.”

 

Steve sighed. “There’s no point in waiting, let’s just get this done with so I can get my feet on the ground.”

 

A sense of relief washed over Tony’s face and he placed his palm firmly on Steve’s muscle clad shoulder. “You’ll be running in no time, Cap.”

 

He seemed friendly enough, for now that was. And that charming grin as much as a plastered on one, was enough to coax Steve into giving him a chance but that wouldn’t mean he would lower his guard completely.

 

Tony let Steve get ready in a couple of modern looking clothes, modern being a rather lightly put term considering the combinations that Steve had decided upon; beige trousers, white t-shirt that had come out of his box of things with the crest of his camp on it and over that a dark blue jumper. Not too bad, but not great either.

 

The moment that Tony caught sight of him when he was being escorted to the jet he had to stifle a laugh and managed to cover it up with a heavy cough at the rather bland and old fashioned look, this coming from a man that was ever so keen to wear vintage Armani and was currently dressed in a cat suit, upon that realisation he realised that he really shouldn’t have been the one laughing.  Steve fastened his belt, Tony next to him, ordering that they be flown back to NYC. Rather than piloting the large metal, triangular shaped craft that certainly looked like something out of the many sci-fi movies that were cult-famous these days, but Steve hadn’t seen anything like it. But judging on what he was told, SHIELD was similar to a military and or government organisation, so having the technology didn’t surprise him. That and he was far too distracted with staring out of the windows, watching the cities they passed, seeing how everything had changed, not that he could see much asides from a bird’s eye view.

The journey was awkward, and Tony kept taking glances at Steve, opening his mouth as though he wanted to say something before stopping, doubting himself, internally reeling over the how Captain America sitting there was enough to shut him up.

 

“Pretty impressive, right?” Tony rummaged the courage to ask.

 

“Yeah…”

 

“Nothing like how it was back in the day, am I right?”

 

The Captain continued to stare out of the window. “It’s… Surreal.”

 

Tony nodded, attempting to empathise. “But this is the future to you, who could’ve ever imagined…”   

 

Steve sighed, still trying to comprehend it all. Staying largely silent and locked in his thoughts for most of the trip. Tony’s attempts at small talk were futile, that was, and until he began talking about the cartoons he watched. It took a lot to admit that to Steve and it was a strange position to be in. People would be fans of his, not the other way around, so actually getting excited about talking was really a foreign feeling to him, and yet he could feel his heart race, voice raise with excitement when he started talking about fights that he’d seen illustrated, and filled with even more joy when Steve would expand on them. The talk from the soldier was reluctant at first, but hearing someone talk so passionately about his exploits and feeling the need to correct him on some points made him open up a little more.

 

“You know what, let’s not go to NYC, we’ll go there later. We’ll head down to New Orleans now – one of America’s biggest World War II collections are there, it’ll be easier to catch you up.” He gestured to the pilot and gave him the orders, with Steve left a little confused and dumbfounded at the idea that most of the objects from his age were now artefacts in a museum.

 

“I can’t exactly disagree now.”

 

“Don’t you want to see what you missed?”

 

“Well I do…”

 

“For now, just until we get there, let me show you a couple of things on my tablet.” 

 

Steve’s eyebrows raised with intrigue as Tony reached into the briefcase he’d carried that was now his suit, having picked it up on his way out, and slotting out a piece and tapping on it until it lit up with a cyan shimmer, creating a flatbed tablet with holograms.

 

“I can show you the world~” Tony chimed. Steve just stared, confused as to why the man had suddenly seemed to burst out into song. The director tried to shrug it off and laugh, imagining what Steve’s reaction to the wonderful world of Disney would be. He made a mental note to take him to Disney world.

 

_Is that stupid? No. Disney World is awesome. I want to show him **everything** , I don’t want to miss any details so as embarrassing as it may be, Disney World is on the list, after all it’s one of the epicentres for American tourism nowadays and the industry churns out masses of films that are highly influential. Yes Stark, keep telling yourself that to justify yet another trip to Disney World. _

“Okay, so let’s start where you left off, the 1940’s right? Fury tried to make you integrate to the 1950’s sort of thing, you were just heading into the 60’s so you’re up to date until then, let’s show you a few more things.” Tony found himself scooting closer to Steve, taking in that smell of what to him were the remnants of gun powder or soot that’d imbedded itself so deeply into Steve’s skin that not even 70 years in ice could ever remove it.

 

Steve stared at the holograms, eyes following their every move as Tony began to flick through and bring up projections with ease, into buildings, people that moved, people that talked. He had never seen anything like it in his entire life and he didn’t know whether to be afraid of it or whether to accept what he was being told. Everything seemed so factual, so real and solid. Information being thrown at him and being forced to accept it was an extremely bewildering feeling. But the man next to him seemed so thrilled to be preaching about development and how things have changed, even introducing his company to him. Steve was familiar with the company; in fact it should’ve clicked sooner – Stark.

 

“You’re Howard’s son!” Steve exclaimed.

 

“Yeah… That’s my old man.” Tony drawled and nodded, his hand rubbing at the tip of his goatee, though hating that he would forever be in his father’s shadow, even in the eyes of his hero. “He spent a long time looking for you.”  

 

“He did..?”

 

“I thought it was all phooey. But I guess the old man hadn’t lost as many marbles as I had initially thought.”

 

Steve was quick to notice the strange fall in Tony’s tone. “Not too keen on him…?” Was he prying, perhaps a little too soon? It’s only been a matter of hours since they had first met and here he was discussing father issues. Tony didn’t really reply, just sucked lightly on the inside of his lower lip until he composed himself enough to meet Steve’s eyes again.

 

“We had our differences. But he’s left me a company; I’ve lost it and built it back up, from scratch. This company is mine now, not my fathers. And I aim to make the world better in the future, as long away as that may be. But you know what they say, there’s no real catching the future.”

 

“So just keep making the world a better place?”

 

“That’s my goal.”

 

Steve admired someone that spoke with that much confidence, noticing that proud smirk plastered over Tony’s face.

 

“That’s a good goal… Director Stark.”

“Stick to Tony.” He smiled, feeling the need for a friendlier introduction, as late as it may have been.

 

“You call me Steve too, Captain is for the battlefield.” He nodded, reaching out for Tony’s hand. The dark haired man smiled joyfully and took Steve’s hand, giving it a firm shake.


	6. Chapter 6

Hours of talk after the long initial silence had ended them back in the USA, in New Orleans to be more specific. Getting transferred from plane to car and getting taken to the museum. Tony was exhausted, dozing off in the car journey while Steve remained distracted by the sights that passed by in a quick hazy flurry.

 

Then there they were, in front of the largest museum Steve had ever seen. A momentous structure with pillars and white pillars, a glass wall, it was truly something that he’d never seen before, but Steve was preparing for a lot of firsts as it was.

 

He was walking inside with Tony just a few footsteps behind him before he spotted it hanging from the ceiling – A P-64, a fighter plane, on full display, bullet holes and all. Seeing it there gave him a chance to actually admire it, as opposed to when he’d step foot in the air base he’d either be shooed away or have to watch them fly overhead. Then not too far away was a Light Tank M2 in all of its glory. Proud and sturdy, and yet, Steve could pick out the weaknesses in the armour of the tank and where exactly the enemies would strike. He’d not seen many of these on the field himself, they didn’t really last too long either, but taking a look at it close up made all of the memories rush back to him as if it were just recently. He could almost hear the loud clunk of the engines as these rolled by the usually wet terrains. Tony stood with his arms folded, staring at Steve who seemed at that point like a child in a candy store, spoiled for choice, surrounded by everything he could want.

 

The second Steve turned around remembering that he had company with him he spotted that warm stare before it was distracted. He couldn’t quite place the attachment he had gained already but it felt good, it felt nice, it felt _right_. But he couldn’t judge on first encounters, even though that’s what he used to do back in the day. He didn’t have time for meet and greets. There were soldiers that he would see for a day sometimes at base before having to go on missions with them. Not all of his duties revolved around the Commandos.

 

Tony sauntered on over to the guns, white heels of his boots clipping the marvel floor creating an echo, which at least helped Steve determine where abouts his ‘tour guide’ had wondered off to.

 

Steve looked at the artefacts that resided in their own cases, wanting to reach out and touch them but being restricted from doing so, which once more sent a dull ache coursing through his chest.  He needed a distraction, and quick, which was what, brought Tony to his attention. He took a few quick strides to catch him up then flashed a tiny nostalgic smile at the contents of the display that the dark haired man was focused on. “That one is one of the guns we used to infiltrate a Hydra base back near the East of Frankfurt.”

 

“You serious?” He asked. “Doesn’t say that on the card here.”

 

“No, I’m pretty sure. The Commandos took the lead on that mission, they did the hard work and I finished the agents off, made sure the area was clear and we went and defused a huge bomb that was lodged to blow up the city where most of our bases were newly being set up.”

 

“That’s insane, I can only imagine.”

 

“And that one over there,” He pointed. “It’s from a mission near France.”

 

Tony ogled it with wonderment, which he wouldn’t usually do, but there was just something about the way that Steve was telling each and every story that managed to make him hang off every single word.

 

Two hours into the museum visit and there was an announcement that it was going to close. All Tony had to do was flash a couple of green dollar bills and he managed to get it to stay open for the two to finish their visit, walking around every section, every segment and every story Steve had to tell. Tony could’ve sworn he was enjoying this more than Steve, and he wasn’t usually one to dwell on remnants and reminders of the past, but this was like he was living through Steve’s narrative.

 

Then it was a trip home, with Tony being eager to show Steve more this time, and take his turn being the beacon of knowledge. He knew he could, especially when it came to progress and evolution. He was keen to do so, and when they had reached the metropolis better known as New York City, hidden amongst the concrete jungle was the American museum of National History which was absolutely perfect to show Steve. Once more he paid to get inside, and it was considerably late in the evening but that wouldn’t matter. He was still a little jetlagged from his journey overseas, and Steve wasn’t showing any signs of fatigue. So in they went, running rampant through the museum as though they were two teenagers that had just managed to sneak past the guard. Steve felt his defence lower the more he spent with the man, and it was a good feeling, as though he were talking to an actual friend that he had known for years.

 

Tony began to talk as they walked through time, walking from the prehistoric to current day, spending a particularly long amount of time on the moon landing section where Steve just seemed absolutely wonderstruck. Tony had to explain that his own trips to space were rather frequent, but his explanation turned into bragging.

 

“Hold on, stand right there.”

 

Steve turned and looked at him, standing by one of the shuttle models they had in the exhibit.

 

“Just a little to the right…”

 

“I feel like you’re going to make me fall into a trap door here.”

 

“No no, I’m taking a picture, Cap!”

 

Steve blinked. He saw no tripod, no huge box, but he decided to see where this was going. Tony pivoted on his heel, taking a few steps back and holding out his square black phone with a giant Stark Industries label plastered on its cover.

 

“That’s a camera?”

 

“Yeah, modern technology, Cap. I’ll teach you more about it; give you all sorts of things to learn too. Just smile, this one’s for the Christmas Card.”

 

Steve hadn’t posed for a while, but he smiled, a little awkwardly. It was a close-mouthed upward tilt of lips and with a snap; Tony took the picture, looking at it triumphantly on his phone.

 

“Wait wait, while we’re on the subject let me do something.”  Tony ran to Steve’s side eagerly, holding his phone up so that they could see both of their faces in the screen. “This is called a selfie, you’ll hear the term used a lot.”

 

“A selfie?”

 

“Yeah, you know, like you’re taking a photo of yourself.”

 

“Right… Isn’t that a little vain?”

 

“Not really, you want to capture moments and there isn’t always someone to take a photo of you. We can’t all have personal photographers, poster boy. Even though I probably could if I wanted to pay for one – You’re making me over think this, let’s just take the selfie.”

 

_You’re acting like a kid, Stark. Who cares, this is Captain America._

 

He didn’t know how long he’d actually be able to _enjoy_ the moment with him.

 

“Come on, a little closer.” Tony said with such joy in his voice, holding up the phone.

 

Professionalism was long gone by now.

 

Steve scooted closer, making sure he was in the frame, looking up and spotting how Tony was beaming a toothy, pearly white grin. It made him laugh, it was strangely contagious and the moment he cracked more of a relaxed smile Tony seized the opportunity to snap the photo, pulling back to show Steve with both of them at a strange angle, but it still made a good photo.

 

“That’s a good… Selfie.”

 

“Yeah, it’s a great one. Keeping this one. Definitely. “Tony spoke proudly, slipping his phone back into one of his white pouch-pockets and dusting his gloved hands off, feeling accomplished.

 

_No one else has a selfie with the **real** Captain America. _

 

He could feel himself puffing his chest out, shutting his eyes for a second but then snapping out of it, resuming his cool demeanour.

 

“Tony, can I ask you something?”

 

“What is it, Cap?”

 

“Why was I kept in that room for so long? You said it yourself, it’s like I lived a life, a virtual life, for so long…  Why wasn’t I woken up?”

 

“Cap… Steve…” He walked up to him. “Fury said you were suffering from shellshock, that’s what you called it right? Nowadays, we call it something else… We call it Post Traumatic Stress… Now there are different ways to deal with it but we can get through this. Therapy is a big one and… Most people go through it, and it helps.” He’d even created a system for himself to vent his frustrations and act as a therapist of sorts, since he was never one to actually confess his problems to people. AI couldn’t judge him. “We’ll get you started right away.”

 

“So that ringing in my ears I would get…”

 

“Post-traumatic stress. I’m sure it was.” Tony placed his hand on Steve’s shoulder. “It’ll be okay big guy; we’ll get you into therapy. If anything happens, you can call on me and I’ll be there in a blink of an eye. Well, I’d be there quicker if we’d managed to perfect teleportation. We have a good basis for it, but it’s not perfect.”

 

“Thank you, director…”

 

“Don’t mention it, Cap, really. Now come on, I’m getting hungry and a little tired so we’ll give this place one more sweep and head back to your new home.”

 

Steve nodded, hand resting over Tony’s shoulder too, walking alongside him and listening to him talk about progress and technology, and how his company was the pioneer for the future, including its progress into prosthetics and augmentations to help those in the medical industry. Though it was all extremely difficult to swallow Steve felt enlightened by the prospects that were introduced to him, and couldn’t wait to learn more – he felt like a sponge willing to soak up everything that was placed in front of him.


	7. Chapter 7

The Avengers mansion was the next stop on the map.

They had walked up to the huge golden gates that were ridiculously embossed. Overly decedent was the first thing that had sprung to mind when Steve had paced through the thick vintage looking mahogany doors into the marble walled hallway, stepping over a red velvet carpet which looked like it belonged in Hollywood. It was almost a sin to tread on it, but it covered the entire lengthy hallway from the foyer onwards. He was taken from room to room, shown all of the different facilities that were available. Apparently others lived here, but there was absolutely no sign of them.

 

“Where are the others that are supposed to live here?”

 

“Well… This is a rebuild; the old place was destroyed, so they’ve not moved in yet. You and I are the first, the others will come eventually.”

 

“Destroyed?”

 

“Guy with a sock for a mask got to the place. We’ve been living in a revamped hydro-plant since, and now I’ve managed to rebuild it all. Now it’s just up to the others to move in once they’ve managed to detach themselves from their current living situation. To be honest I didn’t want to open it all or let anyone stay here just yet, I’ve got a few more finishing touches to add but it’s mostly finished.”

 

Steve shrugged off the initial thought that arose in his mind that said ‘guy in a sock’ could’ve been Zemo. This was years later, and hopefully he was long gone. Then he was taken up to his room which at present was bare and white. Tony hadn’t exactly had time to prepare or decorate, considering that he didn’t even realise that Captain America was real yet alive until what was just a day ago.

 

“This is your place. I’ll make sure it’s furnished soon… If you want anything I’ll be in my room next door or in my lab downstairs. Most likely in my lab, I have some repairs and work to do and I’ll probably report back to SHIELD about all of this, make sure that they haven’t hidden anything else.” He mumbled that last part, leaving his tablet on the small wooden desk for Steve. “You can use that too, if you’re bored. I know there’s not much to do but I can at least give you that until we get something you like.”

 

“Actually, do you have a pen and paper?”

 

“Uh… Well, that tablet has a pull out stylus which acts like a pen.” He demonstrated, pulling from the tiny tab at the corner of the tab and pulling out the long stylus. “And the tablet acts like paper so… Knock yourself out.” He smiled reassuringly. “Robes and all are in the bathroom already and we’ll get you fitted up for clothes tomorrow too… Have a good rest, Steve; I’ll see you in the morning.”

 

“See you in the morning, Mister Stark.”

 

Tony closed the door, staying outside for a couple of moments. It felt good to see Steve, and he seemed to be well integrated so far, but he didn’t want to speak too soon. With a heavy sigh he retired to the lab and did as he said he would.

 

Steve tried to sleep. The second he shut his eyes he was back in that mystery world that was apparently all programmed, smiling at those who made eye contact, giving them a friendly wave, a tip of the hat. Then he heard a loud explosion, turning his head toward it, seeing the world begin to crumble like shards of glass, collapsing, shattering. The once clear day sky revealed holes where cretins and titans in the forms of the villains that he had fought rushing through and destroying his world. He could hear Bucky’s scream, he could hear the commandos cry and then he woke, panting softly, brushing the beads of sweat that had managed to accumulate over his brow. He was back in that sterile room, that empty room, hollow, alone.

 

He couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t stand being alone like that. Not for now anyway. As big of a soldier as he was, being pummelled in the face with loss was painful enough to deal with, and yet he was forced to carry it all on his shoulders. He slipped out of the cold sheets to his feet, rubbing his eyes and deciding to explore the new place. His wondering mind guiding him down to Tony’s lab which was vacant at the time, just large hanging robots from the chains, and that was all that was there. When he walked further he decided to snoop. The man did say that he would be in either his room or the lab, so the place was empty at present. A few more steps in and he heard a voice, spinning around on his heel and catching sight of a particularly menacing looking robot. It was gold and red like the rest of them, but this one just looked different. He couldn’t help but inspect it with a furrowed concentration. It really was the future, and he had seen bots in HYDRA’s labs before, but this was different. He could’ve sworn he heard it say something when he was walking, but it was there, still, chained up like a doll being repaired.

 

“It got hit by lightning.”

 

Steve jumped, facing Tony who was in his red velvet robe, leaning in the doorway of the lab. “The one you’re looking at, it got hit by lightning. I was fighting a guy named Whiplash when it got hit. It’s not been the same since…”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“At the time I had to upload my consciousness into the programming, after a very long story which I may save for another rainy day, but it’s become extremely smart because of that. It went sentient for a while…” Tony shuddered at the memory “Made some mistakes,” An understatement “But I managed to recover it. I had a battle with it, buried it on an island but it returned with a new AI, and like hell I’d have something else roaming around in one of my suits. I managed to get the AI (Dimitrios) removed and now I’m working on reprogramming it since its body has been largely restored. But as you can see it’s all chained up right now, still working on the internal programming.”

 

“You did this all yourself?” Steve asked, wide eyed.

 

“I did. I don’t sleep much.” He walked a little inside, the small padding of Tony’s fluffy slippers with his initials on them catching Steve’s ear. “So I work. And it appears you don’t sleep either.” With good reason, and Tony understood that first hand. There was a reason that he always had trouble sleeping, and sometimes it was the constant threat of bad guys trying to kill him in his sleep, and others it was night terrors from when he was taken hostage and forced to build a device to keep himself alive, and the constant torture he had gone through during the interrogation and capture process.

 

“New place. It’s harder to sleep.” He said.

 

“That’s surprising considering a soldier like you has lived a nomadic lifestyle.”

 

“New time zone.” He tried to put it in more accurate terms.

 

“Sleep it off Cap; you’ll feel better when you do.” He gave him a pat on the shoulder.

 

“And you?”

 

“Well I got an alert that someone was in my lab so I was woken up…”

 

“I’m sorry about that. I thought you’d be in here.”

 

“Don’t worry about it.” Tony pressed his hand to one of the metal benches, clean cut, and titanium furnishings to match the chrome and platinum plated floors and walls. “Come on, I’ll walk you up.”

 

“Guess it’s my turn to see you off.” Steve said instead, walking out of the lab and back up to their rooms, continuing the talk, probing each other with questions until they reached the end of the hall, even so, just standing in Tony’s doorway bouncing questions back and forth. Something told Steve that they’d be doing this for a long time to come.

 

“I should head inside, I’m actually feeling tired for once.” Tony remarked, rubbing his red eyes.

 

“Yeah, you look exhausted. I’ll see you in the morning, Director.”

 

“What did I say earlier about the name thing?” Tony’s eyebrow quirked and he pouted.

 

“Tony. Tony it is. Goodnight, Tony.” Steve smiled as he spoke, waving to him and walking off to his own room.

 

“Night, Cap.” Tony whispered before heading into his room, Steve doing the same, both of them returning to their beds.

 

***

The first mission was the Boomerang. It happened around lunch, when Steve followed the sound of crashing near one of New York’s biggest banks, which was a hotspot for criminals. He was suited, ready for action in his repaired costume that Tony and Janet Van Dyne had a personal hand in remaking and remodelling, though still bared a strong resemblance to his old costume. Now he had Kevlar scales along the blue of his uniform, it was light weight, streamlined materials that made every action that much easier. His repaired shield sat on his back and people stared as the flash of red white and blue streaked past them, leaping over cars to get to his destination far quicker.

 

“Oh come on mate, you gotta be kidding me.”

 

He hadn’t heard that thick of an Australian accent since his time at war, and even so, it was a rare occurrence. The guy stood in purple and blue, with boomerangs in either hand, leering at Steve as he approached.

 

“Now what’taya supposed to be?”

 

“Captain America and you need to step away from the bank vault.” Steve said, taking cautious footsteps past the broken glass from the shattered window, hearing the tiny shards crunch underneath his bright red boot.

 

“That’s ace, and I’m the queen of Sheba. Now back out of here ya flag covered yank.” He gestured with his boomerangs, pointing to the door.

 

Steve shook his head, pulling out his shield. It had been a long time, a very long time, and it felt good to hold her again. He had to stop his hand from smoothing over the slicked star spangled surface.  “Drop the accent pal, I can see right through it.”

 

Fred Myers, also known as Boomerang was actually an American raised Australian putting on a horrid accent to promote his heritage. 

 

Boomerangs eyes narrowed, sucking at his tongue and clicking it. “Tch, you’re no fun.” There it was, a thick Bostonian accent took its place.

 

Steve threw his shield and bolted forward, hearing a sound from behind him as he peered over his shoulder to see a red and gold suit land. “Tony?”

 

“The one and only, okay now the party can start.”

 

“Great, because I’m thirsty for a good pint and superhero tears.”  Boomerang snarled back, throwing his weapons to parry the shield away, throwing more toward the men.

 

Steve and Tony deflected them, standing back to back to knock the swarm away, that’s when the Captain needed to make his move, sprinting toward the costumed evil-doer and throwing up his leg to kick him down, forcing him to the floor with an easy hoof.

 

“You’ve got a hell of a throwing arm, I’ll say that much.”

 

“Save it, spangles.”

 

Then he noticed something fly past him, dodging the boomerang and then punching the guy square in the jaw.  He continued to hold the man, reaching to tie up his hands in one of the cuffs that was latched on his belt when-

 

“Cap, watch out!”

 

Steve turned around to see one of the boomerangs that were thrown making a swift return to its owner, quickly Tony repulsored it to make it fly to the ground, swooping up to Steve and grabbing Boomerang who was already dazed from the solid smack that Cap had delivered.

 

“That was a close call, thanks Iron Man.”

 

“Don’t mention it, Captain.” The computer distorted voice replied. “We make a good team.”

 

“That was just the first guy, and it was an easy fight…”

 

“Trust me, consider it a warm-up.”


	8. Chapter 8

***

 

Integration was a steady process that took a few weeks and a lot of unspoken grieving and visits to various memorial sites, all with Tony’s accompaniment. Steve was keen to explore and learn, as much as Tony was eager to show off and brag about the world that Steve had stepped into. A few mishaps occurred, such as Tony trying to show off the microwave and of course, Steve’s presence adding that extra pressure which made him slip and leave the fork in his dinner which caused a small explosion in the kitchen that was handled well one of Tony’s many fire extinguisher bots. Another setback to the grand re-opening of the Avengers mansion particularly considering the giant crater left in the kitchen.

 

At this rate no one was ever going to move in.

                                                 

But in truth, Tony quite liked just having Steve around. It was like living with a good friend – and Rhodey certainly approved once he met Steve. Tony stood back and let the two talk about their military business – Steve being in the Army and Rhodey being in the Air Force meant that the banter was present, Rhodey trying to be polite and holding off just a bit. Tony would pout in the distance knowing that Rhodey could go all guns blazing, and usually would when he was concerned, but he could see too that there was a degree of respect exchanged between the two. It was great to see his idol and best friend get along with one another. Tony couldn’t wait for Steve to meet Carol, now _she_ wouldn’t hold back.

 

He was introduced to SHEILD, his weapons were repaired, and training facilities were provided. Tony ensured that everything Steve wanted, he was given. Spoiled for choice, but the soldier demanded very little asides from the basics that he was used to, appreciating his new employers with the added fact that their leader was someone who he was very well acquainted with. Solo missions began to show how well Steve would do by himself, but of course Tony and Rhodey were standing by just in case anything went awry. On some occasions Tony was too busy to monitor Steve, so Rhodey did the honours until he had to let his friend get along with his own business. Rhodey was an integral part of the team, and was a superhero too, he had his own matters like the others to attend to, he couldn’t be babysitting the entire time – not that Steve needed to be looked after, especially after proving how quick he was to adapt and learn. Tony should have known that the master tactician from the pages of his books did exactly what he did on the cover.

 

Steve could never sleep. He had one or two hours because his body needed it, but he couldn’t sleep for lengthy periods of time which resulted in him spending time in the unfinished gym slamming his fists into the punching bag, full of regret and remorse for his fallen brothers in arms, or up in the living room flicking the TV channels trying to learn new things and get himself up to date with current events. He was a heavy reader, and Tony would always leave a book by his door every Monday morning without fail. They would be iconic books of their time, just so that Steve could get a nonbiased view and opinion of the modern day and age and struggles that people had faced. The director would usually send his secretaries to get things when it came to performing errands, and he most certainly preferred reading from a computer screen, but after Steve had helped him out through their missions countless times he decided to actually walk into a small bookshop himself, looking for the best sellers and taking them to the counter. The look of amazement that he usually received from the cashier during his first visits always made him chuckle, but in return he would flash her a charming smile, being polite as he always was. Tony Stark was a true gentleman, despite what the papers insisted on saying about him. Once he had the books he would return to the mansion, place them by Steve’s door with the usual card ‘ _hope you enjoy – TS’_ and then attend to his own duties.

 

Steve would open the door, smile at the book and take it to his desk to sit down and read, and he would read when he couldn’t sleep, then he’d go down to Tony’s lab and discuss it with him. After all, Tony was as much of an insomniac as he was. The post-traumatic stress had resulted in the inability to sleep, but Steve was lucky that was all it was.


	9. Chapter 9

It was a usual night and Tony had decided to talk about his latest read with his companion when he heard a loud clatter from the lab, which was somewhat usual, however it was the yelp of agony that followed that caught Steve’s attention. He found himself running into the lab, wishing that the newly fitted retinal scanner would speed up, and then he saw it, Tony was slumped in a corner of the room with his tools scattered around him. Steve couldn’t run up to him quick enough, kneeling down.

 

“Tony, Tony!?” He shook the engineer’s shoulders. “Tony, wake up…” With worry he looked over his shoulder, trying to find the cause of the fallen man. All he could see was that huge suit with its eyes lit up, hanging from the work-chains. Then his eyes scoured the room to see the other suits all broken in pieces, which sent a spike of worry through Steve’s spine. They were once preserved, beautiful, and statuesque and now they were all shattered hollow shells of what they once were, every single one of them amounting to the pile of pieces that took up most of the floor.

 

“Ugh…” Tony groaned rubbing the back of his head that had smacked into the silver lined wall behind him.

 

“Tony!” Steve gasped, staring back at him, placing his hand under his chin and looking from eye to eye to make sure that he didn’t have a concussion. “Tony, speak to me, can you see anything?”

 

“Y-yeah…” He murmured.

 

“What the hell happened?” Steve helped Tony try to scramble to his feet, but he caught sight of him clutching his side, immediately his hands reached for it, to help support him.

Tony let out a quiet groan, trying to raise the white strap on his director’s uniform that he’d been working in, but it hurt to move his shoulder. There was a giant gaping burn creating a tear in the costume, but it wasn’t the uniform that worried Steve, it was the man inside it. “Come on director, I’ll get you patched up.”

 

“Don’t call me director…” He grumbled. “I hate that job… God damn admin work all the time, you know how much red tape I have to go through, even in my position?”

 

“Got it… What about… Shellhead.”

 

“Shellhead, where did that come from? I thought I…” He winced as they tried to walk together. “…I thought I heard you say that… Over the comm, last battle...”

 

“Your head looks like a shell; like those big bombs that used to drop or regulation bullet shells, a shell! You know?” He had to keep Tony talking to make sure his head didn’t take that big of a blow.

 

All Tony could hear was mutters in that extremely strong Brooklyn accent. Tony could tell. Growing up on Long Island meant that he was used to hearing a particular accent, and Steve’s was definitely out of the blue – old school, strong, a hint of rough edge to each word, a slur. It had a hint of Woody Allen’s voice, or like the guy was straight out of ‘The Wise guys’. He’d always noticed it would flare up when Steve was concerned, and would return to its formal well pronounced accent when he was trying to deliver instructions. It was soothing, strangely.

 

“Tony?” He asked, just to make sure he was still alert.

 

He had to snap out of a daze, shaking his head a little. “Y-yeah, I got it…” He clutched Steve a little harder, leaning on him.

 

“What happened..?” He asked, reaching the doorway of the lab.

 

“One of my bots… Malfunctioned…”

 

“Malfunctioned?”

 

“I was working on the circuits and I guess I triggered a knee jerk reaction out of it, it’s my fault.”

 

Steve sighed a little. “Be more careful, Stark.”

 

“Hey, I’m the director-”

 

“And I’m your Captain.”

 

“My Captain…” Tony repeated, loving the way it rolled off his tongue.

 

“That’s right. And right now, your Captain is worried about you.”

 

Tony stared up at him with a sparkle in his eye. It wasn’t often that anyone had admitted they worry about him. The Avengers, sometimes, Rhodey and Pepper – of course, sometimes he used to think back and remember how much it felt like Rumiko worried about him. Even just thinking about her made him breathless, and this was by no means replacing her, he could never replace her. This was a different feeling; after all it was a different person he was dealing with. But that same breathlessness would happen, the more he looked at Steve the more he clicked, the more he mingled and got along with him. Possibly another best friend, but maybe more. _Maybe._

 

“It won’t happen again, scouts honour…”

 

“Are you even a boy scout?”

 

“Of course I am, of the highest degree. Do you doubt my qualifications?”

 

“Well considering that you seem to magic doctorates out of thin air…”

 

“Number one, don’t mention magic. I hate magic. Number two I have eight doctorates. Eight.”

 

“I think the number increases every time I ask you.” Steve chuckled, shaking his head, and managing to get Tony up to his room, placing him down on the huge oversized bed that looked overly extravagant as usual, once more with an ornate golden headboard that had an iron man helmet each corner of the bed-stand.

 

Slowly he eased him on the Egyptian cotton sheets.

 

“First aid kit?”

 

“Under the bed, by the left hand side.”

 

Steve knelt down, pulling out the kit and taking what he needed, a couple of cold compresses, cracking them to activate them just like SHIELD had shown him in his medical training. “Take that off.”

 

“No dinner first?”

 

Steve rolled his eyes. “Don’t be funny, come on.”

 

“Its fine Steve, I can do it.”

 

“No, you can barely walk, yet alone look after yourself.”

 

“Steve its fine.”

 

“Tony.” He warned. “Take it off.”

 

There was a reason Tony didn’t want to remove his shirt. There was also a reason that he hadn’t been working in his regular tank top these last few weeks.

 

“I’m not going to ask you again, I’ll rip them off if need be.”

 

“That’s what she said.”

 

“…What?”

 

He was going to answer, but something stopped him. “Never mind.”

 

_Hi my names Tony Stark and I’m a mature adult._

 

Steve’s eyes narrowed and he yanked off Tony’s white straps.

 

“Steve, I got it, okay. Eeesh, calm down…” Tony groaned, slowly unzipping the suit and letting it hang by his waist, pooling on the bed.

 

Steve’s eyes shot open at what was before him. Bruises coated Tony’s upper torso to his shoulder, down his arms, which was why he hadn’t been wearing anything sleeveless lately. “What happened to you…?” He whispered in shock.

 

“Malfunctions.” Tony replied. “This is after well… I have a serum, like you, in me. I should’ve told you sooner, but it’s supposed to heal me too, like you.”

 

Steve was still trying to get over the bruises, yet alone another serum being developed from his own. Probably a more advanced one by assumption, but so long as it was in the right hands, being used for good, he couldn’t lecture Tony… For now.

 

“What do you mean malfunctions? Tony, what’s going on? So this is after the bruises are relatively healed?”

 

“…I guess so. Listen, Steve, I can handle this.”

 

“What kind of malfunctions, Tony?” Now his tone was becoming more serious, his eyebrows furrowed, giving Tony that glare that he would only see him give criminals.

 

“This is the last one, I promise you. It’s me programming things and sometimes it doesn’t go according to plan. Sometimes you have to get injured to learn from your mistakes.” He didn’t want to tell him that the bot he was working on, that was once sentient, was rejecting the AI that he was trying to install to override the old one, that whenever Tony was close to it, it would knock him away with those powerful iron fists. He couldn’t explain that to him, because he was desperate to fix it. If Tony made a mistake he would do everything in his path to try and repair it, or live in constant regret, it was simple. This was his problem, _his_ responsibility.

 

“You promise me?”

 

“I do, Steve.” He placed a hand on the Captain’s for a moment. “I promise you, I’ll take care of it.”

 

After a long pause, a reluctant nod was the response from the blond, pushing back his well-trimmed side-curtained hair and letting a heavy sigh escape his lips. Carefully he drew the man closer and began to tend to each of his bruises, starting with the lower arm and gradually working his way up. Careful, slow, neat wraps along the arm with the occasional flinch from Tony.

 

“Stay still.” A concentrated whisper exhaled.

The dark haired man flinched and scowled. “Ever heard of a soft touch?”

 

“Apparently not.”

 

Steve tried to be a little lighter, but when he felt Tony flinch again he looked up at him with a stern leer.

 

Tony fell still. He stared, numb, into Steve’s sharp eyes that could so easily pierce through his soul. They didn’t seem angry, they seemed worried and pained. Steve had lost so much in his life, so much so that Tony could understand the rationale behind the soldier and his (over) protective nature. But this stare made his cheeks flush, which he found profoundly embarrassing to say the least.

 

“Steve…”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Thank you, for this.”

 

“I’ve saved you and you’ve saved me before, Tony. I think we’re beyond thanks.” He said with a breathily chuckle.

 

“So you think we’re beyond pleasantries, and yet I still catch you calling me director?”

 

“Don’t act as though you don’t enjoy it. You seem one to enjoy the power play.”

 

“I’m not going to lie to you and say that I don’t enjoy Captain America calling me Director, but I’m not keen on the role. I like helping, being out there, doing more than just sitting in an office, and you being around and me using you as an excuse to get out there has made me… Well, it’s lit the fire again, so to speak.”

 

Steve feigned an offended look. “You _used_ me?”

 

Tony gave him a light nudge. “A white lie, Steve, since you’re a good guy… And I love spending time with you. Getting coffee with you, standing on the bridge after a mission, that’s what I call perfect.”

 

“I would have never had you down for a man of simple pleasures.”

 

Tony rested his head back just a bit, rolling it back a bit, just to stop the ache somehow. “There are a lot of things that people don’t have me down for. All they seem to see is what the media portrays me as, a genius and womaniser. And yet, my last girlfriend was one that I’d actually moved in with. Her name was Maya…”

 

“I remember you telling me.” Steve said, his expression becoming more serious as Tony’s tone dipped.

 

“I’m not asking to be cared for, Steve, I’m just grateful when it happens. And it doesn’t happen often.” Maybe it was the concussion that was giving him this bout of vocal honesty, but for once he just felt safe, he felt safe with Steve next to him, tending to him. “If I care for someone I show it, because who knows how long you have with them.”

 

“That’s a morbid view on things, but I do understand what you mean. Better than you imagine.”

 

“I know that’s why… I trust you. Because you and I have more in common than you can believe, we have what makes us unique, but we also have each other…”

 

“Did you hit your head too hard there, Tony? You’re starting to sound like those sappy soap operas that you enjoy watching.”

 

“No, let’s just say that little malfunction gave me the right sort of lodge, sometimes you need a kick in the head to do things that you’re hesitant to.”

 

“And what are you hesitant to do, or say?”

 

“Do…”

 

“…What?”

 

Tony had to take the moment, whether it was the emotional toil that he’d been through repairing the suit, whether it was the fatigue or the way he gravitated to being cared for, he just needed to let this out. He leaned closer and pressed his lips to Steve’s.

 

He didn’t pull back. He didn’t want to pull back. Soft lips accompanied by the strong waft of cologne and elbow grease combined to form an extremely alluring moment, mesmerising even. He could feel every ounce of desperation and emotion poured into that one touch of lips, and that alone made the spark in his heart brighten and burst into flame. 

 

He’s not pulling back…

 

It was almost dreamlike. The wave of shock was slowly being swallowed down, by the both of them, and Steve raised his hand around the back of Tony’s neck, encouraging him to continue. They had an extremely strong friendship to say the least, but this was taking things to a new level, and Steve wanted to be on that level, Tony wanted to be on it too as apprehensive as they both were. Needless to say from the day that Steve had awoken they had shared a bond and a special connection, and it always made Tony wonder that if in some distant dimension, if they were more than just friends. He had witnessed the collision of dimensions before so why not act as the catalyst this time and speed things up to see whether that was possible in his own dimension. They clearly cared for one another.

 

Tony pulled back from the kiss and stared up at Steve, letting the dim moonlight from outside light his room, allowing him to admire the silhouette of Steve, sharp features outlined by that thin blue shine. He was stunning.

 

Tony’s softer features, a smoothed jaw which Steve’s hand trailed, etching every single feature into his memory, were also highlighted by the line of light which he noticed with satisfaction. They were both filled with pain, and it wasn’t as though Tony was the only one that needed that kiss, and desired that closeness ever since they had met. Kindness and care were qualities that the soldier would always admire. And there he was trying to hide his pains because he didn’t want to be a burden, just as Steve would do. When it came down to it, despite Tony thinking otherwise, they were both soldiers.

 

The director found himself leaning into Steve’s arms, resting. Focusing on his presence alone, letting everything else fade away, all of his worries dissolving in Steve’s strong arms. Over the course of the time they had spent together they had not only become best friends, but more than that.

 

There they stay…

 

…Together. 


	10. Chapter 10

***

Another mission another day – returning home from Madripoor after a tedious mission involving the likes of Taskmaster meant that things had become far more complicated than first anticipated. Nonetheless, the enemy was taken down, Taskmaster was behind bars again, and Steve and Tony were making their way back alongside Rhodey who was accompanying them. The Director was wearing the suit that he’d been working on. The refurbishment was rather impressive, and the once scary looking suit that was hanging on the hooks in the lab was now being worn and used and packed a hell of a punch.  It was clear that Tony really did mean it when he said he was fixing it, and yet he used a different helmet, most probably a newer model. It certainly wasn’t his area of expertise, so he couldn’t really judge, just so long as he did his job and the suit protected him. He’d been using it ever since that incident in his lab.

 

Steve was up front, observing Carol pilot the jet and learning. It wasn’t too hard but he just wanted to make sure he was fully ready to drive it, though he could hear some noise coming from the back of the craft which caught his attention.

 

Rhodey and Tony were arguing, which quite frankly was rare. Sure they would bicker and banter but not shout at one another.

 

“You need to get rid of that thing, Tony!”

 

“I have it under control.”

 

“That’s what you said last time, and now look!”

 

“Lower your voice, will you.”

 

“Tony, it’s gone too far.”

 

“Rhodey, I’ve got this.”

 

Steve’s attention was snapped back when Carol’s fingers clicked in front of his face.

 

“Eyes on the road, Cap.”

 

“Right… Sorry.” Steve said, looking forward.

 

“Let them handle their own business, Steve. Don’t get involved. I know it’s in your nature.”

 

“You implying I’m a busy body?”  Steve asked, eyebrow cocking.

 

“If I’m honest, yes. Not afraid to say it, Cap. I’m not afraid of that intimidating stare that can make Stark melt as soon as you shoot it at him. This is between them; we need to keep out of it unless it gets too heated. Even so, they’re both grown men, they’re best friends, they’ve gone through more than you can imagine so it’s best to leave it be.”

 

Carol always was wise and had extensive street know-how.  Reluctantly Steve gave the defeated shrug of his shoulder, unable to think of a counter and he couldn’t just blurt out that he was infatuated with the man that was in that argument, and thus his protective nature instinctively wanted to leap in between them and find out what was wrong.

 

He couldn’t get it out of his mind that easily, especially when there was a sudden tense silence and Tony was pacing the place like a lion in a cage. As soon as they reached the work in progress that was the mansion.

 

Rhodey stepped up to Steve, trying to pull him to one side so that they could have a talk, but Steve could feel Tony’s eyes burning into the back of his scalp.

 

“Make sure you keep an eye on him.” Rhodey muttered making sure Tony wouldn’t attempt to lip read.

 

“What’s the matter?”

 

“That suit. It’s not right.” He was quite frank with his wording. “You know during the fight, didn’t it seem… odd.”

 

“Now you mention it, it did seem violent, but I figured that was just because Masters used to work for Bain… And they had a history, didn’t they?”

 

“Tony isn’t the type – and besides, Taskmaster and Tony didn’t hate each other to that extent, not to beat him down like that. It took me holding him back for him to stop. There’s something wrong, Captain. I want to find out exactly what, but the guy just isn’t letting me.  He won’t even let me into his lab. He’s being distant with me, and Pepper.”

 

“I haven’t been in his lab for a while…” He certainly wasn’t being distant with Steve, not after their first kiss and many others that followed, usually as an after-mission routine make-out session, both relieving their tensions and gratitude that they were both alive and kicking after some of the things they had done. But come to think of it, emotionally there had been a barrier, something that Tony clearly wasn’t telling anyone.

 

“Go and check it out, if you need help, I’m here. So are Carol, and the others. Call us.” He said, walking eagerly to join Carols side before she would zoom off without him, she already looked as though she were ready to. He needed to fill her in too, just in case.

 

Steve gave him a nod and a half salute as he began to walk up to Tony, who growled as he turned and made his own way to his lab.

 

“Tony!” Steve called after him.

 

“I’m not in the mood today, Steve… It’s been a long and horrible day; I’ve had enough antagonising for a month, and from my best friend. I don’t need it from my… Captain.” He carped. 

 

Captain America wasn’t having any of it. He reached for Tony’s shoulder and with that stiff authoritative “Tony.” Accompanying his actions, he tried to tug him back a little, the helmet in his arm clattering to the floor. The suit lit up, as Steve touched him the gauntlet from the other side raised and he spun around, grabbing Steve’s hand and practically throwing him against the wall. Tony’s eyes looked as though he wasn’t expecting his own movement, in fact, he looked horrified.

 

Steve wasn’t about to sit there and let someone who he was trying to help literally throw him about. He pushed himself off the wall and grabbed Tony’s arm again.

 

“What the hell has gotten into you, Stark?!”

 

“Don’t touch me, Steve.”

 

“Tony, what’s going on? Tell me!”

 

“Steve please!”

 

“I’m not leaving you until I have answers!” His grip tightened, the squeak of his leather red gloves skimming across the metal surface made a distinct noise.

 

His arm raised again, this time smacking Steve right across the jaw. It was within that moment that Steve could’ve sworn when he glanced up that he had managed to see the entirety of colour in Tony’s face suddenly drain.

 

“I asked you, god dammit, and you didn’t listen!” Tony yelled his brow pinched with instant regret.

 

Steve cupped the sharp edge that had been met with a thud of a titanium gauntlet. He knew he was going to feel that in the morning. But nothing hurt more than the dull drone in his chest that became louder and louder with every sudden shove away from the man that he was growing oddly attached to.

 

_Was he foolish to think that he might have been in love?_


	11. Chapter 11

Tony couldn’t stand and watch Steve hold himself like that, he had to go, pulling back and taking huge quickly paced strides to his lab to get his suit off as quickly as possible. He was suffocating; he couldn’t breathe, not after _that_.

 

As soon as he reached his lab his disassembly line assembled around him to try and pluck pieces of the suit off him, but it was harder than he expected. His eyes lit up, trying to use extremis to disable the suits systems completely which worked a little. The pieces were still being stubborn though, and he could feel wires trying to push up through and into his veins until they were wrenched away, causing his golden under suit to recede, clutching his wrists that still had numerous circular puncture wounds that were seeping with blood.

 

The suit didn’t stay dismantled for long, the chest-piece began to glow, magnetising the pieces together until it stood, fumbling around non-eloquently and grabbed one of the nearest helper-bots, hearing it screech frantically before the yellow glowing decals on the suit began to pulse and the bot fell still for a moment, as though it were corrupting it. It pulled back, rolling over to the workbench to grab the helmet that lay idle, the old helmet, and the one with the dark slanted eyes, intense frown and a ladder pattern along the scalp. Tony’s eyes couldn’t have gotten any wider if they tried. He tried to attempt to talk to the armour, shouting commands at it.

 

“Deactivate!” He barked. “Shut down! Cease! Terminate program!”

 

The armour stepped closer to Tony, backing him in a corner, but Tony wasn’t just a man in armour – he was more than that. He tried to kick it away, tried to knock it back as it loomed closer and closer, but as he found out first hand; punching a 10,000 tonne robot was probably not the wisest of ideas, especially with his already damaged arm.

 

“Do you like him?”

 

Tony glared up at the bot, feeling an intense sense of déjà vu, considering how it had acted toward Rumiko in the past. He wouldn’t and couldn’t let it happen again. “Stop!”

 

“Do you like him..?” The distorted voice asked again.

 

“Shut down!”

 

The suit wrapped its heavy gauntlets around Tony’s neck and picked him up off the floor. “Tony. You and I are one. Do not lie to me. Do not.”

 

“STOP!” Tony squirmed, gritting his teeth tightly, hands wrapping around the wrists of the suit, trying his hardest to pry them away. The burn around his neck was like no other, the intense heat emanating from the metal around his throat was so hot that he could feel his skin begin to sear, in fact, he could smell it, and the stench of burning flesh was one that always made him cringe and remember the time that he was on that island alone with the suit, and it did the same as it was doing now.

 

“Over…ride systems, OVERIDE!” He yelped, focusing all of his efforts to disable the suit and get into its systems.

 

“He cannot have you; Tony…” it whispered once more before collapsing back. “You’re mine.”

 

“Deactivate!” He gestured, watching the suit fall. At least he’d managed to regain control of it, but his hands instantly went to his neck, feeling the sharp pain as he too fell back in the corner of his lab, trembling. He needed to work harder; he needed to get this bot back to its normal state. He couldn’t just give up on it, especially since his other suits were destroyed, but he felt a strange link to it ever since the day he had first put it on after recovering it – after masses of procrastination he managed to use the suit for the first time, and felt it access his memories, his pains, his happiness, and now he felt closer to it than ever. And just when he was getting more comfortable with using it, it does this. _He **had** to fix it because it was his problem_.

 

He coughed, hearing footsteps by the door once more and turning to it with shock to see Steve standing there, with a slightly swollen jaw. “You think I’m going to let you run away from a fight? You can’t just hit me and expect me to not get a reason why, a real reason!” Steve demanded.

 

The director couldn’t deal with this, he got to his feet, grabbing his black cat suit and zipping it up. He would rather not be shouted at wearing nothing but his tighty whities. He’d been humiliated enough.

 

“Don’t run away from me, Tony. Why are you pushing people away!?” He asked, grabbing him by the white straps that rest over shoulder and pulling him closer, that was, until he had just spotted the red ring around his neck that most definitely looked as though he had been strangled.  “What… When did that..?”

 

Tony stared up at him. “Keep your voice down…” He zipped up the suit to hide the mark.

 

“Tony, tell me what’s wrong? It’s that suit, isn’t it?” He turned to the empty suit of armour. “Rhodey told me to keep an eye on it, he said it wasn’t right. Is that why you… It wasn’t you that punched me, was it?”

 

The director couldn’t say a word. “I have SHIELD paperwork to do…”

 

Steve’s grip tightened on the white straps and he pulled him closer, but not aggressively. “It’s hurting you, isn’t it? Those bruises… All the suit, all those malfunctions… Tony you need to get rid of it. You need to destroy it.”

 

“I can’t destroy it!” He yelled back, voice strained. Every word was harder and harder to push out. “It’s… Steve, it’s me, it has part of me in it, and it has my brain. All I need to do is reprogram it and make sure that it stops lashing out whenever it gets annoyed.”

 

“There are parts of you that you need to destroy for your own good, and they are your demons. That thing is clearly a demon.”

 

“Oh don’t be so old fashioned.”

 

“This has nothing to do with me being new to this era, this is dangerous, and I know danger when I see it.”

 

“Oh please. You thought that the printers were dangerous when you saw them in my office.”

 

“Cut the crap, Tony. Stop defending that thing!”

 

“That _thing_ , as you put it, is one of my creations that I’ve worked long and hard to perfect, and I won’t stop until it’s perfected! It’s an innocuous suit, only used to protect me.”

 

“Some good it’s doin’.” Steve gestured to Tony’s neck. “

 

“Let me handle this…”

 

“It hit me, Tony. You think that’s a good sign? It’s not good. I don’t hate technology, as you think I do, I just… I can tell when it’s doing more harm than good, it doesn’t take a genius or a technical practitioner to figure that out.”

 

“I’ll fix it!” Tony screamed out with conviction and desperation.

 

“Tony, listen to me, please…”

 

“I made a mistake with it, in the first place. You don’t know how many people were hurt because of it!” He could see the way it pushed Rumiko in his mind, repeating over and over, the way it took him away, and now it was being used again. He tried repeatedly to destroy it and now he had no other options – he had to fix it before it was used again for evil.

 

He may have been this attached to it because he was deemed as evil so many times by his fellow agents, that his actions were dark and violent. Being called a merchant of death over and over and then after being kidnapped he had turned a new leaf, but even then there were actions that others disagreed with. He pushed forward a legislation that caused a massive conflict and thus caused the death of friends, he had consented to things with his group, the Illuminati, that he may not have condemned if he had to stay on the moral high ground and think with his brain and not his heart. Maybe if he could fix this it could be symbolic that he could be fixed, that all of his wrongdoings could be repaired. But then again, perhaps he was looking too into this all and being over analytical. But he still had hope.

 

It was still _him._

 

The suit still had his mind and was a darker side to him, a side he would never let show, filled with jealousy and possessiveness.

 

He needed to fix himself.

 

Could he fix himself?

 

“You need to move on.”

 

“You are full of contradictions!” Tony retorted.

 

“And so are you.” Steve shouted back.

 

“You and your logic are indescribably monotonous, and your mythology is un-renewed! You believe destroying things is the best way forward?”

 

“No but I believe in destroying evil, and that suit isn’t worth salvaging.”

 

“Oh, like you? You’re a relic!” Now it became personal. “Fury kept you under because he knew you couldn’t handle it, and now look, you can’t handle it. You think destroying the future of technology is the best way forward instead of repairing it? And I’m supposed to be the futurist here, the one that destroys and moves on, and yet I take from your mentality and I’m being persecuted by the man who always sees the best in things… Technology isn’t your forte, Rogers, stay back and let me work.”

 

“You may be a hero because of your unwavering drive and potential, but your faith in humanity is lacking.”

 

“Humanity are the ones destroying the world, the minority are preserving it, with the assistance of technology. You’re outdated, Steve. ”

 

Steve lurched forward and pulled Tony closer, staring into his eyes in a beseeching manner, as though he were imploring him for some sort of joke as the dull drone in his chest became progressively louder and much more painful.

 

“Tony…”

 

“Let go of me Steve… Let me fix this, please.” There was silence. “Please…”

 

That argument about him being outdated was a defence mechanism and Steve knew it, even though it made alarm bells ring, and he could see right through his lies. He knew he wasn’t the best at using tech, but he certainly knew how to learn and adapt as quickly as anyone else could, if not quicker. He wondered if Tony underestimated him all this time, and although his morals _may_ have been outdated, there was something he could never lose, and that was his faith in humanity over technology.

Perhaps Tony should have been included in that bracket.

 

His voice lowered, his grip loosened and he eventually let go. “You’re not a machine, Tony. You’re a human, you’re a man. I trust you…”

 

He felt guilty for having snapped, both of them did. Emotions were high, Tony felt like a ship at sea tilting on harsh tides from side to side. He needed the comfort, he needed his friends and yet he knew the closer they got to him, the more at risk they were until he could fully reclaim the suit as his own. But it always did disturb him that the suit was him, a far more corrupt version of him, be it, but still him.

 

He swallowed down his pride for a moment and placed his hand to Steve’s jaw, being light with his touch. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to call you a relic.”

 

“We say things in anger.” His voice maintained a little wisp of harshness and strictness. “And sometimes it’s the truth.”

 

“Steve-” He gripped his arm instead, pulling himself closer.

 

“Ever since you started using that suit your attitudes changed.”

 

Just when the argument began to simmer down, there was an instant trigger to boil it back up. It was emotionally exhausting to say the least.

“Oh here we go again.” Tony rolled his eyes. “I haven’t changed!”

 

Steve grabbed his arm before Tony could pull away yet again, but this time a huge gauntlet grabbed him and flung him back into one of the broken suits, but instead of hitting them, Cap rolled and began to skid on his knees, trying to get a footing, before rising up and noticing the huge suit, lit up once more. “Do not touch him!”

 

Tony ran to the bot, before it lunged forward and grabbed Steve by the collar, raising him off the floor with ease.

 

“He is mine. He is not yours. He is **_mine!_** ”

 

Steve winced, kicking his legs out and hearing the repeated thuds of his boot clanging against the metal. “Tony, call it off!”

 

“Tony and I are one, we are the same. We share thoughts, and the conclusion is that you are out dated, and must be exterminated. Survival of the fittest. You are the original and now with a new and improved serum based upon your own, Tony and I shall be superior.” It spoke, throwing Steve back to the ground and kicking his stomach hard.

 

The blond grimaced, his hair falling over his face, feeling a crack in what must’ve been his lower rib. So his suspicions were correct, Tony’s own serum which he had vaguely and briefly mentioned were an improvement on his own. Steve was the test subject and Tony was the improved version, but if they thought that would stop Steve or put doubt in his mind, they were sorely mistaken. “Nothing beats the original…” He coughed, spluttering speckles of blood on the floor.

“Stop!” Tony called from the back, trying to tug at the bot, but it just began to stride forward and grabbed Steve, carrying him over to something that Tony had locked away a long time ago, smashing through the doors and tearing through the locks as though they were sheets of paper.  Tony ran after him, knowing that the bot was going for something that he had long since stopped working on, one of the biggest and deadliest missiles he’d ever made back during the time that Stark Industries was actually a weapons manufacturer. Steve wouldn’t go without a fight, he was kicking and pulling away, but even with his extreme strength he couldn’t quite outmatch the huge suit of armour. Tony had to think quickly, and the only way he could stop the suit was to put on a prototype that he had stored away for emergencies, so he ran as fast as he could to unlock it. In the meantime the huge suit of armour pulled Steve to his feet, only for the super solider to give it a massive kick in the chest, throwing all of his weight into it. The soldier immediately tasted the rancid hint of copper that pooled in his mouth when more blood spilled. The sentient armour staggered back, just for a moment, and Steve took the chance to throw another punch at him. It was hard to fight something that was just a hollow suit of armour, but as he threw the punch his fist was grabbed and yanked back. Steve could feel his shoulder pop and let out a loud grunt while the armour grabbed the chains that had once held the huge doors shut, and wrapped them around Steve. Without even having to type commands in the huge suit managed to activate the countdown. The virus that was inside it was spreading, as it did when he had touched that helper-bot.

 

“He is mine.” It repeated like a broken record. “We will be one, and you, Steven Grant Rogers, will be destroyed. You do not belong here.”

 

“Get out of my face, tin man!” He barked, growling and flashing his clenched teeth.

 

“I thought you liked me.”

 

“I like Tony, not you!” He spat.

 

“He does not love you, Steven Rogers. We are on the threshold of change, that man evolves and I am here to facilitate that evolution and give nature a helping hand. We shall be one. You are in our way.”

 

The bot let out a dark laugh and made sure that Steve was chained to the missile. “You don’t like Tony. You never did. You are like everyone else, you use him, you hurt him, and you destroy him. I will help him; I am the only help he needs.”

 

“I won’t hurt him..! He’s the only… The only friend I have here!” Steve wriggled in the restraints, watching as the suit diverted its attention to the countdown clock that flashed up on the giant blue monitors that were already lit up, blue backgrounds with white numbers, ticking down second by second.

 

The bot laughed once more before Tony stepped in wearing one of his spare suits, it was one of his originals, golden stretched material along his arms and legs with a clunky thick looking chest plate and gloves, it certainly didn’t look like any of the other models Steve had seen him wearing or working on, he could even see his bright blue orbs under the eye slits.

 

“Take that off.”

 

“Make me. Actually no, I quite like it in here; it brings back memories of all sorts.” Tony bantered, the other suit didn’t seem happy and that became particularly noticeable when its shoulders rose, having taken human mannerisms into account. Heavy stomps echoing on the floor, rumbling the ground, but Tony stood his position, absorbing as much energy as he could into his chest as the centre brightened.

 

“Take it off!!” It yelled, leaping at Tony and grabbing the mask, placing its palm firmly over the faceplate. “How dare you, HOW DARE YOU! You are mine, it does not deserve you! Only I, I am the only one!”  Tony could hear a loud crunch when the metal started to flex and bend, the vice-grip of the huge armour weighing down on the fragile plates. Tony fired the powerful unibeam from his chest, which made the suit flinch with a giant gaping hole, collapsing. But Tony didn’t have time to sit back and soak in his victory, not when he could hear the countdown ringing in his ears.

 

“Steve!” He called, but there was no response.


	12. Chapter 12

Being strapped to that rocket sent Steve into a fit of anxiousness, laying there against the smooth, cold surface made him relive in his head. There he was, soaring through the sky, able to hear Bucky. He tilted his head up, eyes fixed on the shadow of the boy, desperately trying to move his bound hands and reach for him. “Bucky!” He screamed. The Captain could even feel the wind push through his hair, the powerful gust as they flew higher and higher, but still he was unable to move.

 

“Cap!” Bucky reached for him.

 

Loud explosions nearby, the commandos taking the ground, the smell of soot in the air and gunpowder even this high up in the air.

 

“Cap! Steve..!” The ghostly voice called.

 

“Bucky, Bucky..!” He yelled louder, trying to fight against the wind.

 

“Steve..!” A hand reached for him, grabbing his hand, but the shadows cleared and it wasn’t Bucky, it was Tony, staring through the broken up faceplate, through those eye slits as dented as they were. The chains were on the ground, the surroundings formed back to the lab, head snapping to the screen to see the countdown had been disabled.

 

He wasn’t flying on a rocket, he was home.

 

Steve sat up, cold beads of sweat trickling over his temple, swallowing down a heavy gulp to try and moisten his dry throat, his breathing was quick, and behind that mask Tony stared with extreme and intense worry, wrapping his arms around Steve without a single second of hesitation. “It’s okay; I’ve got you, pal…” He knew post-traumatic stress when he saw it. Steve raised his arms around the metal body, closing his eyes to adjust and to just process what had happened in his head.

 

“Tony…” He breathed. “Thank you…”

 

The director pushed up his faceplate, being sure to let himself relax in Steve’s grip, letting a sigh of relief escape his lips.

 

The most important thing about that entire moment was that _they had each other_.

 

They held one another for a long moment, letting every single argument that they had against one another melt away.

“Tony… I…”

 

Steve opened his eyes, letting them adjust to the light, but seeing a dark shadow behind Tony rise taller, before spotting the menacing yellow narrowed slits. “Tony!” In that split second Tony was plucked from his arms, the metal red hand reaching for Steve and slipping out of his grip, just as Bucky had. Time slowed, he watched him get pulled away, get torn out of his classic armour like an oyster from a shell, and then away, crashing through the ceiling and out of the mansion roof.

 

His entire body felt numb and he felt helpless, watching the man he loved get ripped from him, just as his old life was; torn away. Steve felt the warmth leave his body, snapping out of his horrible sense of painful nostalgia and scrambling around, still trembling. He got Rhodey on the line.

 

“Rhodey, I need your help!”


	13. Chapter 13

“You sure you can track him?”

 

“Yes, Captain. We have a unique system, and I’ve worked with him on his suits a number of times. You got what I said was in the vault?”

 

“Got it and you’re sure this works, Rhodes?”

 

“Yes sir.” The voice replied over the radio. “According to this, he’s been taken to a SHIELD tech lab. No information on it so far.”

 

“Any civilian casualties?”

 

“Carol and Jessica have made sure that the area has been evacuated since I sent them the sitrep. There are a couple of lab assistants inside the building; according to this the bot used Tony’s security override to get into the building into the first place, rather than smashing its way in.”

 

“It’s getting smarter.” Steve noticed.

 

“Used the same code to lock up the entire building.”

 

“Like I said, smarter.”

 

“The things crazy, I knew it.”

 

“You going to make Tony pay you back somehow?”

 

“He’s going to have to make me a brand new suit and get me a new set of wheels for me to forgive him this time.” Rhodey joked, as serious as the situation was, but it helped. After all, the Commandos would do exactly the same thing, even in the darkest situations, as much as they made jokes, they took the situation extremely seriously.

 

***

 

Tony was tied up,  as were the knocked out agents that had attempted to try and tackle the living armour, but Tony was tied to the wall, pulling at the binds as best  as he could, even though all attempts were futile at that moment. The living armour had spouted wires from its fingertips, slithering along and into the computer systems. He wanted all of the information, all of it, every single piece so that it could learn and surpass its creator, but not for that purpose alone – so that it could empower Tony when they became one single entity, when they merged.

 

“How dare he touch you.” The armour spoke, backing up its own AI into the SHIELD database before absorbing the data. “You are mine. He does not deserve you. Decrepit outdated waste of life, the test subject that should have been eliminated. He is a failed subject, you are the superior subject, and you are the perfect subject.”

 

It withdrew its wires from the machines and stepped up to Tony. “Together we will be unstoppable, invincible. Do you not want that, Tony? Do you not want to be invincible and free of the pain and suffering that you have spent your entire life suffering in? I can save you.”

 

“I don’t need you to save me! I have my team, I have my friends, and I have Steve!”

 

The armour let out a yell of frustration, placing its searing hot repulsor-lit palm to Tony’s face, making the man tilt it to a side, but despite his efforts to escape the heat, he could feel the burn, he could taste it too.  He pulled at the restraints that were extremely tight, so much so that he could feel the ropes start to cut into his wrists when he was moving them.

 

“You have me, and I am all you need.”

“You’re jealous of Steve, aren’t you? Because I care for him, because he cares for me?”

 

“He does not care for you like I do. I can make you a better man, he cannot. I can make you complete, Tony.”

 

“No, you don’t understand.” He paused, plucking up the courage to look into the demonic eyes of his own creation. “He makes me a better man, and I make him a better man. We help each other, we take from each other, that’s what friends are, that’s what lovers do, they hold each other’s hands – they don’t coerce them into becoming the same person, because what makes them appealing are their differences, their quirks!”

 

“Such sentiment.” The bot groaned. “In moments the entire SHIELD database will be uploaded to my systems. I will have all of their knowledge. And then we shall become one, and you shall gain full control, absolute unobstructed full control.” It placed its fingers under Tony’s neck, raising his chin, ignoring the unkempt tufts of hair that managed to slump forward over his brow.

 

“You know why I care for him?!” He panted a little, his two back teeth grinding together as they clenched. “Because he makes me feel human!”

 

The bot was taken aback, grabbing the dark tufts of hair between its fingers ever so gently at first before yanking him back. “You are making me do this. Humans are imperfect. You will be perfect. You had made me to be perfect, and you shall be too.”

 

Tony yelped loudly. The sound echoed loudly through the hollow room, and Steve chased the noise through the hallways, crashing through the window, shield first. Only, it wasn’t a shield, it was a holo-shield, something that Tony had been working on in extreme secrecy (and by extreme secrecy it meant with the allowance of telling Pepper and Rhodey and showing off his handiwork).  Steve used it to pummel the living armour away with one swift motion. The shield was certainly strong, extremely so, which was exactly what he needed.

 

“Steve!” Tony exclaimed, the life returning to his eyes.

 

“Damsel in distress.” Steve said through clenched teeth, attempting to keep the armour away as it stood with its heels digging into the floor, making an extremely loud screech on the metal tiles below and began to throw its weight into the shield. 

 

Tony had remembered he’d programmed it differently, it didn’t run on the run of the mill software – this was something that he had worked long and hard for, including a chip that made it impervious to viruses.

 

The Captain dug his own heels in, barging the armour back. “How did it survive that hit through the chest earlier!?” Steve asked, noting down the huge hole in the armour that was healing itself with wires that weaved in the inner workings of it. It was no longer a suit; it was attempting to build a body, to become real, just as Tony had seen before.

 

“Didn’t hit the core, I must’ve missed by a few inches, but that’s where-”

 

The suit jolted and changed direction, grabbing Tony and placing a forceful hand over his mouth. “QUIET, TONY.”

 

“Mmmph!”

 

The super soldier ran at full speed, barging him with immense amounts of Herculean strength “Get your hands off him!”

 

“The control panel! Steve! Disable it!”

 

“I need you to do that for me, Tony!  My hands are full.”

 

“Well as you can see, my hands are tied, literally.”

 

Steve was pounded to the ground, taking batter after batter to his chest and abdomen, gritting his teeth, furrowing his brows and just taking it, hacking out as he felt the wind leave his lungs every time he was hit.

Then the armour emitted a loud sound emulating the sound of guns, old guns. It knew, of course it knew, it had been in Tony’s mind all this time. The sound of bullets echoed through its speakers and it made him flash back to when he was on the field, racing through his memories, the nights he spent trying to keep his friends and innocent civilians alive by fighting over and over for them. Then the rocket, but instead of seeing Bucky he could hear Tony’s voice from the time in the lab –

 

_I’m here, pal._

_You’re here, Shellhead._

 

And then he snapped out of it and pushed back, raising his shield and hitting one of the armours hands back, skittering back a little before jumping to his feet and leaping up as high as he could, throwing all of his weight into a powerful dropkick to the helmet of the suit that fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

 

The lights began to flicker.

 

“It’s getting into the system!” Tony yelled.

 

Steve threw his shield, watching it ricochet off one of the walls and then smack into the chains, the intense vibration from the Vibranium emulating holo-shield managing to shatter binds before returning to Steve’s hand. Tony took the opportunity to dash to the computers, using his abilities combined and trying to rectify the systems while Steve continued to batter the armour. It was hard for Tony to watch, and Steve knew that, as abusive as the armour was it was still one of Tony’s creations.

 

“You’re not like this Tony, this isn’t part of you!” Steve yelled over his shoulder.

 

“It was part of me.” He admitted.

 

“I AM Tony!” The armour yelled.

 

“No one asked you!” Steve used his shield to deflect a ray from its palm, but that was the rest of the holo-shields energy used, and it began to deplete and fizzle out. “And you’re not, Tony is human, and he has a heart!”

 

“I have a heart!” It yelled. “You do not understand, you will never understand!”

 

“If you had a heart you wouldn’t have done this.”

 

“I love him!” It yelled.

 

“So do I.” Steve didn’t falter in his wording.

 

It screamed with jealousy, twitching and firing in absurd directions and trajectories. 

 

Steve could see that the rage was causing the armour to make rash decisions, so while he taunted it, he dodged the beams that spiralled his way, spinning and dodging before punching his hand right through where Tony had told him to, next to the crack that had already formed. He pushed his hand so deep within the crevice that he could feel shards of metal scrape and cut at his hand, grabbing the warm source before ripping it out. The lights of the armour began to dim and it slowly but surely, eventually fell by Steve’s feet.

 

In his grazed hand he held the bright pulsing light, limping up to Tony who had regulated the systems, leaning on the huge computers for support, barely able to stand himself. Steve stood opposite him and handed him the pulsing device. Tony stared at it with hatred and resentment, pain and agony, so much so that it made his blood boil, to think this made him hurt Steve, and made him distance himself from his friend. All because of this hand held device that empowered hatred, all because he tried so desperately to fix it as though it were a part of him. But Steve’s words had spoken to him, they deeply did and had managed to embed themselves enormously into his heart, and with that held the light, holding it out and crushing it in his fist.

 

That part of him was long gone.

 

He was no longer a jealous, power-mad, heartless soul – he was Tony Stark, and _he was loved._

 

Steve wrapped his arms around him and held him close, shutting his eyes blissfully.

 


	14. Chapter 14

 

All of the Avengers had finally moved in, the house was packed as even the others from the West Coast had come for the grand (re)opening of the Avengers mansion.  Parties were something that Tony loved, and Steve loved too, especially when it came to mingling with his future team mates and learning about each of them. It was a surprise when he had encountered a familiar face, one from World War II and his recovery mission long ago, Logan Howlett. Though it did seem that his memory wasn’t as good as it used to be, nonetheless, it provided a little comfort to the solider that he wasn’t entirely alone as much as Kid Omega loved to say otherwise, but it was banter (assumingly). A range of different personalities, a cluster of noble souls all gathered in one place.

 

The lively swirl of chatter had simmered down as the opening shindig had carried on through the night was now reaching its end, with people returning either to their own rooms or heading back to their own bases after touring the area.

 

Tony was in his room, taking off his black tie and letting it hang around his neck while unbuttoning his dress-shirt, stretching a little.

 

“Director?”

 

Tony stared at the door and smiled at the sturdy voice that resounded from behind it. “You shouldn’t call me that any more, Captain. I resigned. Too much paperwork, not enough field work. Besides, after the whole incident with the armour it’s shown me where my real duties are, and that’s here with the people.”

 

Steve stepped through the door in his bright blue shirt accessorised with a custom tie that he was given to match his shield, a gift from Carol, looking rather dapper even without the dark blue blazer that he was wearing earlier that evening. “I know, I know.”

 

“Keep up with the times, Rogers. Gosh.”

 

“Gosh?” Steve asked, taking a few steps closer.

 

“Golly? Gosh? Isn’t that what you’re prone to saying?” Tony teased,

 

“I think I’ve managed to prove that classic ingenuity and tactics managed to overcome technology.”

 

“With the use of my holo-shield, this defeats the point.” Tony smirked, a crooked spread of lips.

 

Steve waggled his finger at Tony. “Don’t get cocky. We can say it was the perfect balance between tech and old smarts.”

 

“New and old, combining to make something special, I like that,” he pondered, tapping the centre of his neatly groomed goatee. “Would it be too corny to say that you complete me?”

 

“That’s a movie reference.” Steve snapped his fingers excitably, eyes lit up as he actually smiled and flashed his deep set dimples.

 

“You’re catching on now.” Bemused as he was, he stared up at the man that had saved him countless times, and Steve peered down at his own saviour.

 

The blond raised his hand, pressing it to the side of Tony’s face, instantly spotting the way he eased into it, like a cat rubbing its cheek against an object with such delight upon his face. He smiled, hand lowering into a caress, gently skimming his thumb across Tony’s bottom lip. The other man didn’t flinch; instead he seemed mesmerised by such a gentle manner coming from a man that was famed for his punches and brutality. But no, Steve was a lover; he was a gentle soul at heart.

 

“I’m catching on.”

 

He could feel his lips part as the gentle graze of his touch moved, and willingly his body moved forward, slipping his leg between Steve’s with their powerful locked stares not broken once.

 

A miniscule gasp escaped Steve’s heart shaped lips, the graze along his inner thigh making his hair stand on edge. He was reminded them of their after-mission sessions, locked in the confines of the nearest artillery cupboard in SHIELD HQ, bodies hot, pressed up against one another, passionately kissing one another with intense desperation and relief. It was love if he had ever felt it; nothing else could emulate that warmth in his chest and those butterflies in his stomach whenever he would think about it.

 

Steve stepped closer to Tony, as much as he could, craving more of that beloved contact. Tony’s arms draped around Steve’s broad shoulders and he felt Steve’s fingers tuck just under his chin for a moment, tilting it up then finally pressing against his own. The electrifying feeling between them made Tony’s breath quicken forthwith.

 

The mere press of lips wasn’t enough to satisfy either of them, Steve felt his jaw loosen as he became more accustomed to the wonderful taste of strawberry champagne that Tony had been drinking earlier that night, his tongue searching for more. There was a muffled gasp from the dark haired man and he felt his cheeks already stain with that distinct redness.

 

Tony’s fingertips ran along the nape of Steve’s neck, trying to bury just under his collar. The second that Steve felt it, he reached blindly for the tie that was hanging loose around the billionaire’s neck, giving it one small tug before it fell to the ground. The faint chime of Steve’s dog tags filled the room as he moved.

 

Tony pulled back a little from the kiss, just for a moment. “That’s silk you-”

 

Steve wouldn’t let him finish, how very dare he part their lips for a second, he thought. This time he kissed him with much more passion, easing his body forward until with a loud and clumsy thump, Tony fell back on the bed.

 

A muffled murmur escaped Tony’s lips into Steve’s mouth, and became steadily louder when he felt the weight that Steve was putting on his hips. His entire body felt stiff at that moment in time.

 

Steve began plucking at the remainder of Tony’s buttons to release him from the confines of his smart, dark red shirt, but it was extremely difficult to remain focused when Tony was letting out murmurs that echoed from the back of his throat.

 

He drew back, to kiss the crook of Tony’s neck, to his pleasure Tony moved accordingly and tilted his head to the other side, his hands scrambling down Steve’s spine, then to his collar again, gripping at his tie to lure him closer, to maintain that distance so he could feel the warm cascade of Steve’s breath along his skin.

 

Steve was shaking and Tony could feel it, especially when he reached his belt buckle. His hands went for Steve’s, gliding his agile fingers down them. “I can help…” He whispered.

 

Steve bit his lower lip for a moment, and then gave him a nod of consent, hearing the loud click of Tony’s customised arc-reactor style belt, then the raise of his hip as he pulled it through the rest of the rungs on his trousers until it slid off the cotton sheets. Instinctively he reached for Steve belt too, pulling at it, feeling his way around all five points on the star, then finally unbuckling it and letting it too take its place in what he intended to be the mass of clothes.

Tony wasted no time going for Steve’s tie, followed by his shirt after desiring to strip him of it ever since he had first kissed him, letting it unveil a fine specimen of a man; carved muscles that lifted and sunk with every single breath he was taking. Even in the dim light Tony noticed how it had a faint pink blush that extended from Steve’s cheeks down his muscular torso, but when he pressed the pads of his fingertips along the pectorals he felt that it was surprisingly soft. Nothing like he was expecting, and yet, even more desirable, it was silken and opulent.

 

“Take it off…” Tony whispered, only for Steve to obey, letting the blue shirt slip down his shoulders. Huge muscle bound arms, just as he expected, just as he’d seen and felt, the same arms that would deliver those distinctive bone crushing hugs that Tony adored. He loved those arms, there were no words to describe how much so.

 

Tony wanted to touch everything, he needed to touch everything. He couldn’t help but swallow down a huge gulp of pure anticipation, pushing up his chest to show his eagerness, his leg resuming a steady rub up the inseam of Steve’s black trousers. Another shudder is felt from the Captain before his large hands run their way along Tony’s sides, and Tony relaxes in their beautifully secure grip.

 

Steve felt Tony’s movement to his inseam become far more rigorous than before, noticing the hunger in his half lidded eyes, he craned forward and slipped Tony’s trousers lower and lower. He had to wriggle to get out of them, but he was already doing so, particularly since he was pushing his hips up to meet Steve’s instinctively with a stare that oozed confidence.

 

“Now you…” Tony said once he was free to stretch his legs, brushing one foot against the other to skilfully kick off his socks.

 

Steve gave him a nod, once again biting his lower lip. He wasn’t nervous, not with Tony’s reassuring attitude, but he wanted this to be perfect.  He very carefully unzipped his trousers and slid out of them, resuming his position on his knees between Tony’s legs this time, leaning closer to blanket him once more, stealing his lips for another deep, loving kiss. This time Tony let his mouth relax, and he could’ve sworn he could taste apple pie in the sweet Captain’s lips.

 

 “Darling…” He muttered under the kiss incoherently.

 

Steve’s body rubbed against Tony’s, their bare and muscular bodies. Steve’s hands couldn’t get enough of Tony’s beautifully olive skin and how heated it felt up against his own particularly when his palms flattened over each dip of Tony’s defined abdomen which he found particularly and inexplicably attractive, but the thin fabric of Tony’s briefs, and Steve’s boxers meant that he could feel _everything_ , not that it was a bad thing, but it was pleasantly surprising.

“Drawer… Lube…” Tony mumbled, pointing by using his fingers but desperately trying not to let their lips part again.

 

“Right… Got it…” Steve replied. He had no choice but to pull back and scramble over the sheets to reach toward the nightstand and rummage through the drawers, and low and behold, there was an unopened bottle which read ‘cherry flavour’. Steve’s mind was too much of a lust filled haze to question it, placing it down next to Tony and letting his fingertips curl around the elastic of his perfect white briefs.

 

“Honey, it’s okay.” There was that reassurance. “Kiss me, I need you.”

 

Terms of endearment in that satin voice made Steve eager to continue, grazing his lips at first against Tony, but the billionaire wouldn’t have just that. His arms slithered around Steve’s neck and he pulled him forward, eager to be satisfied. His legs spread and he could feel the way that Steve’s entire body pulsed against his own, particularly down by his hips. The soldier was stiff, and feeling him rut up against him even with that thin barrier of clothing between them sent surges of pleasure up his spine, searching for more.

 

His hips lifted off the bed and ensured that he made full contact with Steve, sure by the reaction and reciprocation that the super soldier loved the feeling. And he did. Very much.

 

The kiss became more passionate, and the flickers of heat between them became gradually more intense, the rubs between their body and friction alone were making beads of sweat form along their skin. Steve removed Tony’s briefs with an increasing hankering to see him in all of his refinement. He was hard, as the soldier had felt, erect, proud and not bashful at all. Tony lay there with his head tilted and a besotted smirk plastering his face, eyes filled with lust, grabbing at Steve’s hands and guiding them along his shaft. At first he gasped, but he soon relaxed, understanding Tony’s desires.

 

He was being touched by Captain America.

 

 _The_ Captain America.

 

“That’s it, keep going.” He groaned, shoulders shifting at the light tease of a touch.

 

“You’ve lost your rank, ex-director, you can’t tell me what to…” Steve couldn’t help but retort. His words brought an uncontrollable wide Cheshire-cat-like grin to Tony’s face, tilting his head further back into the mattress.

 

“Then do what you will with me, Captain, ravish me, my superior officer.”

 

The word ‘ _Captain_ ’ rolled off his tongue so beautifully.  

 

The command low toned made Steve purr, giving him another chaste press of lips and continuing with the smooth rub along him. He could feel Tony’s body lift in eagerness and his ankle hook around Steve’s own. He breathed him in, sharing their breath with such an intimately placed kiss, deciding to trail his lips to the patch of well-trimmed hair that framed Tony’s chin. Tony’s hands raised and cupped the back of Steve’s head, drawing him closer as he noticed whenever he came close, his stroking movements would pick up their pace.

 

Tony couldn’t take it any longer, the butterflies in his stomach had amplified to a hurricane and he tried to gracefully lift his leg up, attempting to push Steve’s underwear down with the constant brushes of his foot against the fabric, reliant on the friction. Steve didn’t hesitate to assist, trying to wriggle and twist out of his own star spangled boxers, letting it hang down before hesitantly removing a hand from Tony’s plush skin to toss them off, allowing Tony to give them one final shove off with his ankle.

 

The blond was more confident than Tony had anticipated, though he did make a mental note of how many women would fawn over him and that natural confident persona that made the Captain who he was managed to transfer through to Steve, of course it would, Steve was the man behind the shield. The Captain’s strong arms raised, instead of stroking him with it, he was rolling his own hips against the dark haired man, the feeling of their lengths slicking against one another made constant moans of bliss escape the Tony’s hand heart shaped lips which were soon hushed by the crush of Steve’s lips against his own; heated, desperately, longingly tasting him. Tony’s hand scrambled over for the bottle of lube that had rolled next to him, letting out a soft murmur against Steve’s lips as a warning before lifting it up to his mouth popping it open with his teeth, making Steve’s entire body tense at the sound alone.  

 

Steve’s hand reached for the bottle that Tony held out ready for him, though with a little nervousness considering how big Steve’s fingers were. Those strong hands could do wonders but they did make him a little uneasy.

 

“Over your fingers… Then there…”

 

“I think I know how it works.”

 

“Just making sure…” Tony replied in a dizzy haze. “I need this.” An unintentional whisper escaped that caught Steve’s attention, making him dip and press a line of butterfly kisses down Tony’s neck, slipping down his body, then to his chest.

 

“I’ve got you, Shellhead.”

 

The heat rose to Tony’s already flushed expression, staring through long lashes at the man and his adoring gestures.

 

Steve’s lips and tongue explored the expanse of Tony’s muscular chest, which was particularly sensitive. He could see a faint scar, a circle that was no longer there, eyes flicking up to meet his partners for a while before kissing just down it, over the brush of black hair and began swirling circles with his tongue over Tony’s nipple.

 

“Steve!” Tony groaned in pleasant surprise at how daring and risk taking the Captain was, enjoying every single moment. The wet touch followed by the sucking, then Steve’s hand slipping down the slim V of his hips until he could feel the cold press of the gel by his opening, making his hips flinch. Steve continued his concentrated luxurious kisses along Tony’s skin that tasted of a mix of heavy musk and watermelon.

 

Carefully he hooked his other arm under Tony’s thigh, the other two agile fingers easing their way through the wall of tensed muscle, with Tony releasing staggered moans that raised an octave with every inch further he went, being slow, caressing and gentle. It was still strange and extremely invasive, to feel someone pushing that deeply into him. Tony’s back twisted awkwardly only for Steve to hush him with soft murmurs.

 

“It’s okay, I’ve got you.” He spoke with his lips pressed to Tony’s chest.

 

“It… Your fingers…”

 

“Tell me if I’m hurting you.”

 

 

Tony nodded in a haze, his jaw clenching at first, but Steve’s movements started to circle inside him One fingers turned into to, and he began spreading and scissoring his two fingers to work the muscle. It actually hurt; it was painful despite the lube. For a moment he could have sworn he was tearing up, only to swallow it down after he looked up at the man doing it to him with an instant sense of relief.

 

Steve’s fingers began to take a pace, a steady movement in and out that Tony found rather uncomfortable, his brow pinching and nose crinkling, biting tightly on his lower lip undeterred by Steve’s constant kisses of comfort.  Momentarily the sensation of the cold metal from Steve’s tags touched his chest, cooling him, just for a second.

 

“D-don’t push it… It’s sensitive.” Tony warned with a hoarse ring to his moan.

 

Steve wanted to get that sensitive reaction out of Tony, so he pushed his fingers deeper, resting his chin on Tony’s chest to observe his reaction which was a louder moan, filling the empty room with that sudden cry.

 

“F-fuck…”

 

“Watch that potty mouth.” Steve said, although he’d heard worse in his platoon, he just wanted to taunt Tony, even when they were being so loving.

 

“Shut up…!” Tony cried out, but with an upward flick of the corner of his lips, staring down at Steve who decided to slither back up Tony’s body and kiss him lovingly, sustaining the movements, hearing Tony’s moans in his mouth even as he kissed him.

 

The blond nudged Tony’s beautiful ebony strands out of his face using his nose, pressing a number of kisses to his temple, smoothly removing his fingers. Tony let out a grunt at the loss of them, already feeling a strange emptiness, but that was only temporary. Steve angled himself between Tony’s wide legs (amazed at how flexible he really was). For a moment he kneeled up and kissed along Tony’s legs, as though he were praising them, placing gentle kisses to the inside of his thighs. Tony was still flustered, his throat dry, hands idly rubbing along his own body having missed how Steve’s body draped over him provided him with a sense of warmth that nothing could ever replace.

 

“God, you’re beautiful…” Steve blurted out.

 

He wriggled a bit while Steve decided to hook his arms under both of Tony’s legs after he was done kissing him. “I know… But it’s more coming from you. So much more, Winghead.”

 

“Winghead… I like it.”

“Get it, wings on the... Head?” He asked, still trying to compose himself, his mind still focused on the feeling of Steve’s hands on him, the wonders he could perform with them.

 

“I get it.” Steve chuckled, smiling broadly with his deep set dimples on show.

 

_How can a man look that adorable?_

 

The question went both ways.

 

Steve eased his length into Tony, the head making the man beneath him gasp, then the further length making him cry out in a way Steve had never heard him do before. Tony threw his head back, inhaling as though he were suffocating. Steve’s eyes were focused on his every movement, making sure it wasn’t too much.

 

“Steve!” He cried. “Steve, oh Steve. Captain… Love… Darling!” A flurry of muddled words poured from his mouth as his body was filled with the deep heat of Steve lighting a flame inside him.

 

Steve breathed out at the sensation of the tight muscle wrapped around him and the extreme heat of Tony’s body, making sure Tony’s legs were resting on his shoulders as he began to glide his hips to start to move.

 

Tony’s breath hitched and he reached for the soft sheets that he was pooled in, grapping at them, body rocking with Steve’s hips. He wanted to keep his eyes open to look at Steve, to look at the Adonis that was giving him this much pleasure already; beautifully sculpted, strong, handsome, with his mop of blond hair now a wonderful mess and not to mention that heavy jawline and distinct dimple in his chin.

 

Tony wanted to etch this moment into his own memory, forever.

 

“Tony, my Tony…” Steve groaned. “Keep going…”

 

His body arched upward to Steve’s encouragement, eager to feel more of the surges of electrifying pleasure that jolted through his entire body, and he just kept going. His hips rolling into him, heavy pants as Tony moaned so loudly that he could hear his voice become raspy and his throat felt extremely sore, but he had never been in so much pleasure in his entire life.

 

The same went for Steve; he couldn’t stop staring at Tony’s flushed expression, his wide mouth, head back, his heaving built chest rising and slumping, calling out for _him_. His body moved closer to Tony wanting to kiss the lips that passionately called out for him. His tongue licked along Tony’s now dry lips before tilting his head to lick the roof of Tony’s mouth, and the man seized the chance to lock Steve’s lips into a powerful kiss to muffle his own moans that he was extremely embarrassed of. No one had made Tony Stark scream like that.

 

The sweaty calamity of bodies made the bed springs creak loudly as Steve insistently rock. Tony’s knuckles turned white from how hard he was clutching the sheets, letting out deep throated moans even with Steve occupying his mouth hungrily. He could feel soft strands of golden brush against his cheek and he couldn’t help but let one hand lose to smooth along Steve’s back, feeling along his sharp shoulder blade before clutching to his skin. The clutch turned into him digging his nails into him, but Steve enjoyed it, letting out satisfied ‘mmm’ against Tony’s lips when he felt it.

 

He _trusted_ him.

 

He was hitting his spot over and over, Steve letting Tony’s legs slip off his shoulders and ensuring that they were wrapped around his hips and continuing thrusting in and out of him powerfully, groaning in sync with Tony.

 

“Steve, holy—Steve!”

 

To take the words away from Tony Stark was truly a feat in itself.

 

Their bodies were melded together on the mattress, after hours of pleasure, Tony never being more grateful for both of their extreme stamina thanks to the serums they both had injected into their bodies, but he had never met his match, not until today, and boy he had never been as grateful as he was that moment. The feeling swirled in his stomach, he they both knew that they weren’t going to last.

 

The clang of Steve’s dog tags was extremely pleasuring and Tony couldn’t quite explain why.

 

“Tony…” Steve whispered, parting their lips to see the man instantly push his head back, instead he wrapped one arm around his lean body and then took Tony’s chin in his hand.

 

His breath hitched, “Ugh..!”

 

“Look at me, open your eyes.” He demanded.

 

Tony’s eyes opened with much protest and met Steve’s dark, lust shaded eyes, shadowed by his messy hair.

 

Steve was satisfied when he met the dark blue “That’s it.” It was more encouraging; he bit his lower lip and continued to pound into the man, wanting to pleasure him as much as he could. “Come for me.” He whispered.

 

It was as though he needed Steve’s permission.

 

His hips bucked up one last time, crying out Steve’s name. Simultaneously the sight of Tony climaxing over himself and Steve being able to feel the stickiness between their bodies over his own abdomen made him deliver one last powerful thrust, gritting his teeth and finally releasing in him, slumping on top of the man in sheer exhaustion. Tony fell back into the mattress, then let out an added ‘oof’ when Steve fell on him, nuzzling him with tenderness.

 

Tony wriggled his hips at the filling feeing that ran through his body, a loud huff escaping when he felt Steve pull out, and drip out of him. He may have let out a quiver of a groan.

 

The dark haired man trailed his fingers along Steve’s back, past the scratches he’d made, leaning over to give him a kiss along it. He was absolutely exhausted, but gave Steve’s neck a rough suck just for a second to give him a marking of his own; after all, he was sure that his entire body would be covered with bruises of passion the next morning, brushing the strands of sweat drenched hair that were matted to Steve’s temple away, being rather tender himself.

 

The weight was soft and comfortable and Tony never wanted to be without it ever again.

 

“I think I love you…” Tony muttered tiredly, barely audibly.

 

“I’m sure I love you.” Steve replied keeping their bodies tangled together.

 

For the first time since he had woken up, Steve Rogers felt alive.

 

***

 

The next morning Steve was in the kitchen of the mansion, with the others happily going about their day and exploring the new place, as well as settling in. It was nice for once to hear the busy chatter.

 

He stood by the coffee machine, turning around when he heard the loud greeting that could only be Tony, plodding into the kitchen wearing Steve’s shirt from the night before. Instantly the Captain flushed with an uncontrollable grin.

 

“Where’s the coffee?” He asked, sauntering up to Steve.

 

“Made it.” He gestured to one of the many filled mugs he’d prepared for the others.

 

“Great, no sugar?”

 

“Upper shelf.” Steve said calmly, placing his mug of coffee down.

 

Tony tip toed a bit, he was only inch shorter than Steve but it made the world of difference. Just as he reached he lost his footing and nearly fell, that was, until Steve quickly moved behind him and caught him, holding him in his arms.

 

“I got ya, Shellhead.”

 

“I know you do, Winghead.”

 


End file.
